Riley Gaines urges women to reject advice that weakens marriage

Riley Gaines urged women on October 22 to do the opposite of advice attributed to Alex Cooper and Sophia Bush, saying it would make for a “fruitful marriage.” The October 21 X post by Ezydu attributed to them advice that a woman who wonders whether she can do better than her husband should answer yes.

Gaines answered by attacking the credibility of the advice-givers, alleging that one encouraged sex on a first date and that the other had been married three times and is now married to a woman¹.

Fox News Digital reported that on an April 5 episode of "Call Her Daddy," Cooper urged listeners to set aside traditional dating rules. In the same episode, Cooper told them to choose by what feels good. On "The Riley Gaines Show," Gaines called that message "poison," not empowerment. She told women to do "literally the exact opposite" of Cooper's advice. She also urged mothers to watch what their daughters hear in the media².

Advice that treats a marriage as something to leave whenever a better option appears puts a mother's and father's commitment up for renegotiation, and the children in that home pay for it.

The episode also included Bush’s own retrospective on marriage. She said she and her second husband, Grant Hughes, may have been better suited as friends, and that a shared project contributed to their decision to marry. Looking back, Bush said, “I absolutely see how we mistook a melding on something really important as meaning it was important, that we were important.”³ That account concerns one marriage; the broader instruction that a wife questioning whether she can do better should answer yes is what Ezydu attributed to Cooper and Bush⁴.

Family Brief holds that marriage and the married two-parent home are the best foundation for children. Counsel that tells a wife to weigh her husband against an imagined better option points away from that commitment, and families deserve counsel that strengthens marriage. Public policy should encourage marriage and family formation.

Sources

1. @Riley_Gaines_ on X, 2026-10-22: The women dispensing relationship advice have, respectively: - Encouraged women to swap bodily fluids through the back door on the first date - Been married three times and now married to a woman Just do the opposite of what they say for a fruitful marriage, 2026-10-22
2. Riley Gaines fires back at Alex Cooper's graphic dating advice: 'It is not empowerment. It is poison'
3. Sophia Bush Is Friends with Women Chad Michael Murray Cheated on Her With
4. Post