Tensions between Alex Cooper, the creator and host of the Golden Globe-nominated podcast “Call Her Daddy,” and Alix Earle, the founder of the Reale Actives skin care brand, have seemingly spilled into public view after a year of on-and-off rumors about a falling out.
On Monday, Ms. Cooper posted a video on TikTok directed at Ms. Earle, urging her to “say what you got to say about me.” She began by stating that even posting the video to discuss whatever “beef” they had between them was “a waste of time” and “embarrassing.” But she added that she had received so many messages and had been tagged in so many posts that she felt she needed to address the issue.
Ms. Earle responded in the comments: “Okay on it!!”
The Lix vs. Lex feud — between two of the internet’s biggest personalities, who have millions of followers each and homophone names — started last week when Ms. Earle reposted a TikTok video by Ashley Tiscareno, who posts under the handle TheBravoMom. In the video Ms. Tiscareno criticized Ms. Cooper’s ethics and approach to her business, calling her an “ambulance chaser” for her tendency to interview people during vulnerable moments.
“I was going into the hair salon and just posted this video on the fly,” Ms. Tiscareno, 40, said in an interview. A few hours later, somebody messaged her to tell her that Ms. Earle had reposted it, and suddenly, she found herself “very much in the center of it all.”
Ms. Tiscareno admitted that what she said in her TikTok video was “pretty harsh” and that she felt “awful that it’s been playing over and over and over again.”
The drama has been followed obsessively on social media, with each twist and turn being viewed, liked and shared millions of times. And while the dispute might seem petty, that’s also what makes it so engrossing, said Blakely Thornton, a culture and fashion critic.
“Drama without life-or-death stakes, between two very successful, traditionally attractive women, where, no matter what’s revealed, there’s nothing dark going on and, at the end of the day, they both are going to still have millions of dollars?” Mr. Thornton said in an interview. “That’s what we’re all craving right now.”
He called it “high school cafeteria, Regina George stuff,” referring to a main character in the film “Mean Girls.”
Neither Ms. Cooper nor Ms. Earle responded to requests for comment. Here’s what we know.
Who’s involved in this drama?
Ms. Cooper and Ms. Earle are influencers who have turned their large followings into multimillion-dollar business empires.
Ms. Cooper, whose fans call themselves the “Daddy Gang,” is one of the highest-paid podcasters in the United States, and she has often beat out legacy media organizations to secure interviews with big names such as Michelle Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris and Kim Kardashian. She is also the founder of the Unwell Network, a media company that houses other podcast brands.
Ms. Earle is a beauty and lifestyle influencer with over eight million followers whose ability to sell products online is so strong it has been called the “Alix Earle effect.” She introduced a skin care line this month, Reale Actives, that quickly sold out.
In 2023, the Unwell Network signed Ms. Earle to host the podcast “Hot Mess With Alix Earle.” But in February 2025, the two parted ways, and Ms. Earle put “Hot Mess” on pause.
So what exactly are they fighting about?
That bit is unclear. Rumors that the two didn’t get along started to swirl when “Hot Mess” was dropped from the Unwell Network and went on a hiatus last year. The perceived tension quickly became internet fodder. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal a few months later, Ms. Earle said that her effort to get back the rights to her podcast was “a little bit of a hot mess,” but she didn’t divulge anything else.
Last week, the situation seemed to ramp up after Ms. Earle reposted Ms. Tiscareno’s video — a quiet move that set off wild speculation and tea leaf readings online about what, exactly, she was signaling about her relationship with Ms. Cooper.
The repost prompted Ms. Cooper to post a response on Monday in which she labeled it “fake drama” and told Ms. Earle to talk candidly about what, exactly, was going on between them.
Is that all there is to this situation?
Not quite. Fans have been kept rapt by the drama, declaring their allegiances to either side. But some observers speculated that it could all be one big marketing stunt.
In her newsletter Feed Me, the popular Substack writer Emily Sundberg suggested that the two were “promoting something and we’re all going to be annoyed.”
Ms. Tiscareno, however, doesn’t buy into that theory, because the video she posted and Ms. Earle’s repost of it were both organic, she said.
“I can’t imagine them working together,” she added.
Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering women’s health and health inequities.
The post Alex Cooper and Alix Earle Are Fighting. Or Are They? appeared first on New York Times.
