Dave Portnoy Takes Alix Earle to Task Over Alex Cooper Feud Silence

When you throw punches from the shadows, you’d better be ready to throw them face-to-face. That’s the lesson Dave Portnoy is trying to teach Alix Earle, and he’s not holding back about it.

The Barstool Sports owner lit into the 25-year-old influencer during his“Tea by the Sea”segment, calling out what he sees as cowardly conflict management. Earle’s been reposting TikTok videos criticizing Alex Cooper for months, taking what Portnoy describes as“relentless”shots at the podcast powerhouse. But when Cooper, 31, finally had enough and called her out directly in an April TikTok video—saying“I’m really tired of waking up and seeing you using this fake drama to distract from other s*** going on for you”—Earle promised to address it head-on. Then…nothing. Not on the Today show on Tuesday, May 12, where she dodged the question entirely. Not anywhere public since.

Portnoy’s frustration cuts deeper than just the silence. He respects the old-school approach: if you’re going to chirp, you answer the bell.“I’m not going to, like, take these veiled shots at somebody and then when the other person is like,‘Alright, let’s go, let’s hear what it is,’just disappear,”he said. He contrasted Earle’s supposed army of 40 PR people and carefully crafted image against his own willingness to handle beef straight-up, no team, no script. And he landed the real critique: Earle had“plenty of time”to come clean but chose silence instead, which means she shouldn’t have been taking shots in the first place.

The feud itself traces back to business. Earle launched her“Hot Mess”podcast under Cooper’s Unwell Network in 2023, and they developed what looked like a genuine friendship. But when the podcast got dropped in 2025, cracks appeared. According to sources, they clashed over business decisions, and the personal relationship suffered for it. That tension eventually spilled into public shade—Earle reposting videos accusing Cooper of being an“ambulance chaser”—which finally pushed Cooper to demand transparency instead of innuendo.

What Portnoy’s rant really exposes is the gap between influencer culture and accountability. Earle’s got the algorithm on her side—Portnoy himself noted that“all the girlies love Alix Earle”—but platform popularity doesn’t excuse dodging a direct challenge. You can craft an image, play the game, and keep things“pretty positive”in interviews all you want. But if you’re taking shots, you’ve already chosen a side. The only question left is whether you’ll own it.