in other news: Alix Earle leaves Unwell

the partnership that never made sense unravels as expected

Welcome to a new column I’m calling “in other news” where I address a recent development in business & culture that might not be tech related, but I have strong opinions on and unsolicited advice to share. There’s no set time, day, or guaranteed cadence to expect from “in other news.” The only thing guaranteed is a surprise in your inbox once in a while, and me coming in hot because if I don’t get it out there now, immediately, I’ll throw a tantrum.

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If you’re between the ages of teen to 35 and you regularly use the internet, then you are usually familiar with the prominent faces flooding our social media feeds. One of those familiar faces is internet’s darling, Alix Earle. Messy-Miami-party-college-girl-makeup-queen was the start of her brand. However, in the 2-3 short years of her TikTok reign, Alix has transformed into the young woman we all hoped to be after we finished college, and she did it authentically while sharing it all on the internet. One way of sharing? Her podcast “Hot Mess,” that has apparently been “dropped by Alex Cooper’s Unwell Media,” according to - the media.

“Dropped by” is some good PR work on Unwell’s end. Was it really “dropped by” or did Alix drop a bye bye and the Unwell team is just getting ahead, spinning their own narrative? I don’t blame them, it’s the right thing to do on their end, especially since the last few months the general public’s (read internet’s) reaction to some of their new shows and their drink launch hasn’t been so enthusiastic. It would also track with Alex Cooper’s style of handling publicized issues surrounding her and her company — Don’t address directly. She lets the internet supporters, media allies, and indirect stories in her podcasts, posts, or soundbites get her to the point in her now almost decade long career chess game where she can say “check” once again. To many, in story telling terms, she’s a villain and she milks it.

However, this is not a letter about Alex Cooper. It’s about Alix Earle, and the point I’m trying to make is - I don’t think Alix Earle was dropped by Unwell, I think she has been wanting to leave for a long time.

I think she either bought out the rights to her Hot Mess brand and said adios, ciao, dovidenja, OR her contract was up and she was able to get out of it scuff free.

This is not an original thought by any means. Tensions have been apparent for quite sometime to us who are avid users of the internet, and are also girls¹. The first time that I remember thinking something is going downhill in this business relationship was this past summer, when Alix Earle was nowhere to be found at Alex Cooper’s 30th Birthday splash in the Hamptons. She was also not present at the Unwell Drink launch party this past December. To top it all off, despite having time to jump around a gazillion events during Super Bowl weekend, was Alix seen at the Unwell Super Bowl party? You guessed it, she was not.

Now, as your resident biz-tech-culture-everything brat, let me show you some receipts. From day one, I had an inkling this partnership was not going to work.

On November 16, 2023, during a discussion with my sister about Alix’s first episode with her (then not even official yet) boyfriend Braxton, and one of her first podcast episodes ever, I shared a premonition I had.

In typical fashion, my sister was like “this bitch again,” but I could tell right from the start something was off. I elaborated a little further, and while the rest of our conversation is mostly in Croatian I’ll share this tidbit for more context.

The first two texts say:

”You don’t understand what I’m trying to say”

“Everytime she would say NFL Man”

and then the rest you can read yourself:

From the start, I could tell that there was no brand alignment between Alix and Alex. Sure, to the naked eye it seems like there was. They’re two fun blonde wild unapologetic party girls sharing their whole lives online. One is a former single gal who originally built her whole personal brand around her single life, but has now grown up and is passing the baton to the other, a just out of college single girl living her best wild single life. That makes sense, right?

The reason it never did is because the similarity ended at fun, blonde, and unapologetic. They diverge at the most crucial point — the part of their lives they share online. Alix Earle was never going to share her sex life publicly, and that’s not because she’s in a relationship, it’s because that’s just not who she is. She did not build her brand on the base of being single and her single life shenanigans, sex tips, and other topics Alex covered at the beginning of her media career.

You might say, “well okay but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work,” “what about Madeline Argy, and others?” etc, etc. Of course, it could have worked, if Alix was there for the correct reasons. However, it’s no secret that Alex hoped Alix would be the one to continue her brand and message legacy. It was apparent from the start - from how Alex introduced Alix and her podcast to the public, from the questions she asked her in their first interview, and from some of those first few “Hot Mess” episodes where you can clearly tell Alix had been directed on how to position certain things and topics.

In the Call Her Daddy interview that launched “Hot Mess,” Alix was clearly uncomfortable with the more out there sexual questions. Her calling Braxton “NFL Man” in her TikToks was soooo Alex Cooper coded. You could just tell that the Unwell team outlined that in the content strategy for Alix’s pod. The ruse lasted for a little while, but I was happy to see Alix was finding her footing and going back to communicating about her life in a way that felt natural to her.

Is that what created tension between Alex and Alix? We’ll never know. Maybe there’s no tension at all. Maybe the reason Alix hasn’t been associating herself with the Unwell brand for a while because her departure was discussed a long time ago, so she was released of all public appearance obligations. However, I think most of us, including myself, immediately jump to the “there’s beef” narrative because of the highly publicized drama that was Alex’s break up with her former co-host, Sofia Franklyn. All press is good press, but it’s hard to shake off a certain reputation.

That being said, I think the few newcomers to the Unwell Network fit the brand way more than Alix Earle ever did. Grace O’Malley makes a ton of sense, and Hallie Batchelder is the correct person to continue the original CHD legacy while Alex Cooper grows and expands her range.

So what’s next for Alix Earle? Well, these breakup rumblings have actually not been officially confirmed by any of the parties involved. Just a few hours ago, Alix shared a clip of a new episode from the pod that came out today. The Unwell Network Instagram page still follows Alix and Hot Mess. Hot Mess is also still listed as one of the Unwell shows on their website, which by the way is missing a few, so I don’t think it’s a place to follow for up to date information. Ultimately, we don’t know if all this is even true or what’s next when it comes to Hot Mess.

BUUUUT, if at any point the partnership does officially break, and if I was advising Alix on her business & brand, I would tell her:

1. Absolutely do not partner with Barstool

   Just this morning,

   as seen on
   wrote about speculations that Alix Earle will be moving over to Barstool. I of course texted my sister about it - because WTF - and she told me about the post Dave shared, insinuating he had a call with Alix, stirring drama. My gut response to that was:

   

   I was correct, because after a quick Google search I found a piece quoting Dave as saying “I just thought it was funny.”

   Alix has a strong enough brand and audience to produce her podcast on her own if she wishes to. Her brand also does not align with Barstool’s brand, just like it didn’t with Unwell. Which btw, hot take, but Unwell is proving to be just a female Barstool. Nothing wrong with that, but neither of those brands align with Alix Earle.

2. That being said, I would pause on the podcast.

   In one of her first episodes in this new season, she expressed concern she was running out of relatable topics to share with her audience as she moves away from the college phase of her life. She brought on her little sister as a co-host to even the ground, but seems from reports on how the pod is doing in terms of viewership and listeners, this season is just not hitting as well as the first. I would take a beat and reassess if having a podcast right now fits the overall vision she has for what type of business woman she wants to be.

3. Instead, she should focus on YouTube,

   like she has been lately. Share the process of figuring this new phase of life out. Share the week in a life of going to meetings for the new alcoholic brand she’s working with. Share what creating a campaign looks like. Alix has a business muscle in her that she is slowly working out and I think her OG followers that are the same age as her, and in the same life phase as her would love to follow.

4. If it ever made sense to go back to podcasting, I would keep the “Hot Mess” persona and brand for the pod. The new premise of the show should be interviews with other “Hot Messes” who are in the phase of still being young, wild, and free, but also transitioning into becoming badass career women like Alix. Guests don’t have to be celebrities, but even better, up and coming entrepreneurs and successful young women in corporate leadership positions that can give insights on different careers to the everyday woman trying to figure out her next step.

5. One of Alix’s strongest brand pillars is “girls girl,” and it’s authentic. She lifts up women in her life constantly, so she should make whatever her next venture is an extension of that.

Looking forward to seeing how this situation unfolds and what Alix and her team has up their sleeve.

Until next time, brats.

1. Because if you want to find something out, just ask a Gen-Z or Millennial girl to do it for you.