Actor and photographer Cole Sprouse finally made his long anticipated appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast on Spotify. The podcast has been growing its reputation for platforming controversial celebrities over the past year, and Sprouse certainly contributed to this phenomenon.
Sprouse rose to fame for his role as Cody Martin alongside his twin brother Dylan Sprouse on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and its spinoff, Suite Life on Deck. The interview covered a lot of bases–from Sprouse’s early childhood in Italy to his parent’s divorce and experiences as a child star. While Sprouse made some strong points about the negative impacts of the sexualization of young women in Hollywood and his gratitude for the industry providing him with much needed financial stability in his working class family, viewers focused on the more salacious parts of the interview.
At one point, Sprouse spoke about his twin brother being a bully throughout their school years. While he clarified that he grew out of that, viewers felt that it was strange to bring up the bullying so many years later. He also said that “all the girls loved him. I hated it. Girls love the bully.” Some felt that these comments could be taken as a glorification of bad behavior, or that Sprouse was bringing this up to distract from his own controversies.
The commentary was likely born from a prior 2013 scandal, in which a woman came forward on social media regarding an alleged sexual assault at the hands of Sprouse at New York University in 2013. The allegations were denied by Sprouse and much of the Riverdale cast.
Of course, as an Alex Cooper interview staple, the podcaster poked Sprouse about his dating life. Sprouse has remained relatively private about this part of his life since his 2020 breakup with actress and Riverdale co-star Lili Reinhart. The pair play characters Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper from the beloved Archie comics, and their characters have had an on-again-off-again relationship over the course of the CW show’s run. Since 2021, Sprouse has been in a relationship with French-Canadian model Ari Fournier.
In the most shocking portion of the interview, Sprouse claimed that he and Reinhart “did a lot of damage to each other.” Fans of Reinhart and Call Her Daddy were quick to react to the statement, specifically because Reinhart hasn’t spoken negatively of Sprouse amid their continued co-starring roles on Riverdale.
airing out private details about their break up while the show is literally still filming???? cole sprouse you are very strange????????pic.twitter.com/8FpH2jYmFr
— blair (@lovemesometopaz) March 8, 2023
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Sprouse alluded to this relationship while discussing his mental health and recent sobriety. He went on to describe his current relationship with Fournier as his healthiest relationship to date. Sprouse went on to explain that he feels he was emotionally cheated on in every relationship he has been in, but that he was only physically cheated on in his first relationship as a teenager.
While he did say that he felt he was “always in the right place at the right time for every relationship,” Twitter felt that he should have been more tight lipped about Lili Reinhart, as it could be seen as unprofessional to speak about coworkers in this manner. Many fear that the comments will be swept under the rug due to Sprouse’s position as a beloved child star to Gen Z.
Cole sprouse is an ugly pretentious loser who abused women and somehow gets away with it bc he was ur fave white boy as a kid…. I seriously just need my jabitha endgame and then he can d13 pic.twitter.com/ff3P2CxoOs
— ! (@spelivia) March 8, 2023
Others feel that Cooper’s focus on pushing for shocking revelations on her podcast is unethical overall. Just a few months ago, Hailey Bieber was featured on the podcast, ahead of what would turn into weeks of controversy in 2023 over resurfaced videos of her speaking negatively of Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift.
call her daddy podcast is so nasty. like they first invite hailey bieber to talk 45 minutes about selena and now they invite cole sprouse to talk about his relationship with lili reinhart? jobless people fr pic.twitter.com/ODHweVxkxV
— ana (@withluvselena) March 8, 2023
Reinhart is yet to respond to the comments made in the podcast, but Sprouse is sticking to his statements. It appears that he wants viewers to feel like he hasn’t lived the suite life after all.
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