A short clip from one podcast episode has turned into a much bigger fight about marriage, feminism and fulfilment.
By Vestiworld Staff
A few lines from a podcast interview have set off one of the loudest online arguments of the week.
The episode is Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper, with actress Sophia Bush as her guest. In a clip that has been seen millions of times, Cooper says women can get stuck in their heads about whether they should leave a marriage and whether they can do better. Her answer is that it is “always yes.” Bush backs her up. She says the idea that you are too old, or that it is too late, is simply patriarchy.
The clip was first widely shared by Breitbart editor Ezra Dulis. Within hours, big conservative accounts such as the Daily Wire and Collin Rugg were sharing it too. Rugg wrote that it is hard to understand how much damage the show has done to women.
Others were harsher. Author Peachy Keenan, who has written a book called Supervillains, called people like Cooper and Bush “Divorce Evangelists.” She warned women not to listen to them and not to abandon their husbands and children. Some accounts went further and called the podcast “anti-marriage propaganda.”
Supporters see it differently. For them, the message is about women who feel stuck in unhappy relationships and are told they should be grateful for what they have. They say telling women it is never too late to change course is encouragement, not an attack on marriage.
Bush has lived this topic. She was married to her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray from 2005 to 2006. She later married entrepreneur Grant Hughes, and she filed for divorce in August 2023 after 13 months of marriage.
Soon after, her personal life became tabloid news. Retired soccer player Ashlyn Harris filed for divorce from her wife, Ali Krieger, in September 2023, and reports that Bush and Harris were dating followed. In April 2024, Bush wrote a Glamour essay confirming the relationship and describing her coming out as queer at 41. She also wrote that their bond grew slowly out of friendship. Her words were that she “didn’t see it until I saw it.”
Bush has said she realized her second marriage was coming apart before the wedding itself. Critics of the podcast clip point to her divorce and new relationship as proof of what they are worried about. Her defenders say she is just talking honestly about her own life, and note that she has said she was open about the timeline.
On the podcast, according to reports of the episode, she also said there was no overlap between her old and new relationships. She joked about her first marriage too. She said she is still friends with a couple of the women Murray allegedly cheated with, and quipped that he “had great taste.”
Not just about divorce
The episode went beyond marriage. In another widely shared clip, Bush talked about #MeToo. She said it felt like “every single woman I know has a story” while many men insist they know nobody who has done anything wrong. She said the movement did not fix the system, but it made women a group that could no longer be ignored.
Some replies online said that explaining consent directly helps people understand it better. Others pushed back on the way the discussion was framed. As with the divorce clip, people mostly responded according to what they already believed.
The timing also overlaps with a separate viral moment. Actress Kate Hudson drew attention for comments on desire after 40. She said society wrongly assumes women become less sexual as they age, and that in reality many women in their 40s and even 50s are very sexual. She added a joke about men’s libidos in middle age.
Research does suggest sexual desire does not follow a simple pattern with age. It varies a lot from person to person, and both men and women can have strong desire well into midlife.
The show’s host is no stranger to controversy. Cooper started Call Her Daddy in 2018 with Sofia Franklyn. After a public falling out over a contract with Barstool Sports, Cooper became the sole host in May 2020, and she later signed a $60 million, three-year deal with Spotify. In 2025 she released a Hulu docuseries about her career, Call Her Alex.
According to the posts shared with us, Cooper married producer Matt Kaplan in 2024 and recently became a mother. Critics online have used that to argue her advice does not match her own life. Her fans say the point of her show was never to tell everyone to leave their marriages, only to let women have honest conversations about relationships.
So who’s right?
It depends on who you ask. Critics see a message that treats marriage as disposable and could push people to end relationships that could have been saved. Supporters see a message for women who feel trapped, afraid of being judged for their age, and told to stay quiet.
What is clear is that both sides are talking past each other. Few people in the debate would say every marriage should end, and few would say every marriage must be saved no matter what.
