Call Her Daddy co-creator Alex Cooper has become the highest-earning female podcaster, having secured a $125M three-year contract with Sirius XM in 2024—but just eight years ago, she was struggling to pay her rent.

The sex-positive host — who turns 31 next week — once depended on cash from sugar daddies she connected with through SeekingArrangement (rebranded as Seeking.com in 2022) to cover her New York City apartment bills.

Fresh out of Boston University, Cooper was making ends meet with unemployment checks after losing her ad-sales job at Gotham magazine when she sought support from wealthy benefactors.

‘The goal was I never wanted to do anything with these men,’ she said on her podcast in 2020. 

‘It was just to go get drinks and dinner, and by the end of the night have enough money for rent.’

Call Her Daddy co-creator Alex Cooper is currently the highest-earning female podcaster, having signed a $125M three-year contract with Sirius XM last year, but her financial situation was far more dire just eight years ago (pictured June 8)

The Unwell founder — whose brand includes a media company and wellness platform — would even enlist a friend to sit in the back of the bar to keep watch: ‘We did crazy fun s*** like that, though in retrospect, I want everyone to be careful. I don’t even know if you should be on that site.’

In 2021, she told TIME she had no regrets about sugar dating: ‘Those hotel moments, or whatever, they all taught me something. 

‘And yes, of course, the caliber I was doing it, people maybe think of that as aspirational. But we all go through our s***. 

‘But you’re going to be able to figure it out.’

Cooper explained on her podcast in 2020 (pictured): ‘The goal was I never wanted to do anything with these men. It was just to go get drinks and dinner, and by the end of the night have enough money for rent’

The Unwell founder would enlist a friend to sit in the back of the bar to make sure she was okay: ‘We did crazy fun s*** like that, though in retrospect, I want everyone to be careful. I don’t even know if you should be on that site’

But Cooper left all the toxic situationships behind in 2020 when she began dating ‘Mr. Sexy Zoom Man’ aka XO, Kitty producer Matthew Kaplan (L, pictured in 2024), whom she wed 16 months ago

Cooper left those situations behind in 2020 when she began dating ‘Mr. Sexy Zoom Man’ — real name Matthew Kaplan, a Hollywood producer behind Netflix’s XO, Kitty — whom she married 16 months ago.

Last summer, the Call Her Daddy star bought her parents a house near her own $10.7M Studio City mansion so they could have weekly dinners.

She recalled being emotionally scarred in 2004 when her father, former NHL video coach Bryan Cooper, lost his job during the league’s labor lockout: ‘I remember he was posting flyers around the neighborhood to help repair computers,’ she told Vogue on Tuesday.

Her mother, psychologist Laurie Cooper, was still practicing at the time, but her income ‘wasn’t enough to sustain a five-person household.’

Last summer, the Call Her Alex star proudly bought her parents Bryan and Laurie Cooper (pictured in 2023) a house near their $10.7M Studio City home, so they could have weekly dinners

Alex told Vogue on Tuesday: ‘I understood money came with an opportunity to care for people around you’

Cooper – who’s ranked No. 5 on Forbes Top-Earning Creators list – previously earned over $1.5M during her three-year deal with Barstool Sports in 2018 as well as a $60M three-year deal with Spotify in 2021 (pictured Sunday)

‘I understood money came with an opportunity to care for people around you,’ said the Pennsylvania-born star.

Ranked No. 5 on Forbes’ Top-Earning Creators list, Cooper previously made more than $1.5M from her 2018 three-year deal with Barstool Sports, and later signed a $60M three-year agreement with Spotify in 2021 before moving to Sirius XM.

Over the years she has interviewed guests from Vice President Kamala Harris to Jane Fonda, Gwyneth Paltrow and Hailey Bieber.

‘I think almost every person that’s ever walked out after an interview has said, ‘I have never been more comfortable in an interview in my entire career,” she said. ‘And that comes with not trying to come off as this hard-a** interviewer.’