Alex Cooper reveals her pregnancy on Call Her Daddy, sharing the raw emotional journey from initially pausing the decision to try for a baby in 2024, to obsessively tracking ovulation, to finding out she was pregnant alone while Matt was on a work trip — and spending four agonizing days keeping the secret before revealing it to him in person with the pregnancy test.
Key Moments
Alex Cooper
“I just looked at him and I said, "We have had such an incredible time of pouring into our relationship, building a strong foundation, being with our family. Now that my family's out in LA, like we spend so much time with them, and literally all I can think about, the only thing that feels like it's truly missing right now is a child and starting our own family together. And I have never felt more ready.”
Alex describes the exact moment in the hot tub with Matt when she realized she was finally ready to start trying for a baby.
“at first there is nothing sexier. There is nothing hotter. There is nothing more connecting in this world than trying to make a baby with the love of your life. You're like, "Oh, let's go. Let's [ __ ] go." Like, get in there. Like, enjoy. Okay. It is great. And then and then once that like spontaneous thrill has happened a few times, there's a little shift. Okay? And that shift is just a little less sexy in my opinion. And it's a little bit more of like a it's like a it's like a scheduled meeting of the bodies, okay?”
Alex gives her honest account of what trying to conceive actually feels like after the initial excitement wears off.
“when it doesn't work and you don't get pregnant, all I was left to feel was what's wrong with me? And the longer it goes on, for me personally, my desire to get pregnant was only increasing, which was then making the disappointment hit even harder.”
Alex opens up about the psychological toll of failed monthly attempts and the recurring cycle of hope and disappointment.
“I started crying with my pants down on the toilet. I'm like oh my god I'm crying. I remember then getting off the toilet. I sat down in my bathroom and I'm just staring at the test. I'm just staring at it. Meanwhile, Henry and Bruce are like freaking out. They're licking my face. They're like, "What is wrong with our mother? Is she having an actual mental breakdown?”
Alex describes the moment she saw the word 'pregnant' on a digital test, alone in her bathroom, after days of negative strip tests.
“I am in the back of this SUV. I am laying horizontal in the very back seat so that these buttons do not pop off as they continue to do. Anytime if I was not standing perfectly straight up and sucking in these buttons were blowing.”
Alex recounts the chaotic red carpet night in New York City when her pre-pregnancy outfit no longer fit her growing bump, becoming the turning point that forced her to go public.
Alex Cooper is the creator and host of Call Her Daddy, one of the most-listened-to podcasts in the world. She launched the show in 2018 and built it into a cultural phenomenon before signing a landmark deal with Spotify and later SiriusXM. Known for her candid, unfiltered storytelling, Alex married Matt Kaplan in 2024 and announced her first pregnancy in May 2026.
Takeaways
1
Strip tests can miss what digital tests catch Alex took pink strip pregnancy tests for nearly a week with negative results, then immediately got a clear 'pregnant' reading on a digital test the same morning. The discrepancy is real: strip tests require higher hCG thresholds to display a visible line, while digital tests interpret and display a word result. Anyone testing early should know a negative strip does not definitively rule out pregnancy.
2
TTC quickly shifts from passion to logistics Alex describes a clear two-phase emotional arc when trying to conceive: an initial period of genuine excitement and intimacy, followed by a mechanical, scheduled routine driven by a three-day ovulation window. She tracked with ovulation strips kept in multiple purses and treated peak-window sex as a task. Couples planning to conceive should anticipate this psychological pivot rather than be surprised by it.
3
Sitting alone with big news has unexpected value Forced to keep her pregnancy secret for four days while Matt was away, Alex initially saw it as torture but later reframed it as a rare opportunity to slow down and connect with her own thoughts before anyone else's reaction shaped her feelings. She described it as the world stopping — a kind of mental clarity she is otherwise bad at creating. Big personal news doesn't have to be shared instantly to be fully felt.
4
Readiness for parenthood can shift fast Alex was ready to try in 2024, then abruptly pulled back, then felt certain again roughly two years later — all from internal signals rather than external timelines. The shift from 'not ready' to 'the only thing missing' happened after intentionally filling time with travel, relationship-building, and career wins. Waiting until genuine readiness, rather than societal timing, produced zero fear and only excitement at the decision.
5
Pregnancy concealment has a hard physical deadline Alex planned to hide her pregnancy until August or September but announced in May after a red carpet outfit — chosen and approved a month earlier — no longer fit over her growing bump. She lay horizontal in an SUV to keep buttons from popping and ultimately went public because hiding caused more anxiety than disclosure. Public-facing people should build a realistic concealment window into their announcement planning.
6
Failed cycles trigger 'what's wrong with me' spiral Each negative test reset Alex to zero emotionally, and the growing desire for pregnancy made each disappointment progressively harder — not easier — to absorb. She explicitly names the psychological warfare as a distinct challenge from the physical one. A partner who externalizes the struggle ('this is on me and you, not just you') meaningfully reduced that spiral.