Alex Cooper's media company Unwell has secured fresh investment at a $500 million valuation, with Hollywood power broker Patrick Whitesell backing the business as it expands into video and consumer products.
Whitesell, whose career management work has included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, is wagering that Cooper and her husband Matt Kaplan can grow Unwell into a billion-dollar media operation. The investment came through WTSL, a firm led by Whitesell and backed by private equity group Silver Lake, and is intended to fund the company's push across both its video and consumer goods divisions.
Cooper and Kaplan founded Unwell in 2023, building on the momentum of the podcast Call Her Daddy. As Fortune has reported, the show draws a large and loyal audience, particularly among younger women, through candid conversations about relationships and sex with guests including Olivia Wilde and Megan Fox. It ranks among the most listened-to podcasts in the United States, and Sirius XM Holdings pays Unwell more than $30 million a year to oversee its distribution and advertising sales.
Cooper has moved steadily to broaden the business beyond podcasting. She produced a documentary for Hulu, hosted live coverage from the Paris Olympics for Peacock, and has developed new programming for YouTube. Unwell has also launched a drinks line in partnership with Nestlé and established an advertising agency alongside Google, giving the company a growing footprint across both media and commerce.
Whitesell, along with colleagues Jason Lublin and Josh Pyatt, sees a clear runway to build on that platform. The $500 million valuation signals genuine institutional confidence in Unwell's wider ambitions, and reflects how substantially Cooper has grown the business since Call Her Daddy first found its audience.
The company has not been without turbulence. Cooper's public falling-out with former co-host Sofia Franklyn, and a later split with creator Alix Earle, who had hosted a show under the Unwell umbrella, both attracted scrutiny. Questions about workplace culture have also surfaced, though Cooper addressed them in Marie Claire last year, describing the environment she and Kaplan have built as positive and safe for staff. With Whitesell's backing secured, attention turns to what Unwell can build next.
