Video taking off 8.4x its usual first day

Denise Huskins tells Alex Cooper what came after surviving her kidnapping

Released after two days in captivity, she then faced police who called her abduction a hoax, an account that follows the podcast's recent conversation about whether women are believed.

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Call Her Daddy Story of October 17, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 39,688 views a day, 8.4 times a normal first day on this channel (4,730).

Denise Huskins: My Kidnapping Story

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2:50Huskins says that despite the response to American Nightmare, every day remains a mixed bag of emotions.
12:59She describes the 3 a.m. break-in: blinding white lights, red lasers and a man saying it was a robbery.
19:15Her captor tells her she was not the intended target.
26:24Her survival approach: control only her own reactions and humanize herself to her captor.
43:48Media attention leads to her release near her mother's home in Huntington Beach.
54:46Police accuse Aaron of murder, then call the kidnapping a hoax inspired by Gone Girl.

Denise Huskins spent two days in captivity believing she would be killed, and she says the decision she made there still guides her: "The only thing I can control is how I react and respond." Speaking with Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy, she explains how that idea shaped every hour. She stayed calm, tried to make herself human to her captor and refused to give him one thing: "They don't get that. They don't get that last moment of my life."

The interview begins in 2015, in Vallejo, California, where she had moved for a physical therapy residency. At 3 a.m., intruders woke her and her then-boyfriend, Aaron, now her husband, with white lights and red laser pointers. They told the couple it was a robbery. She was drugged and taken away in the trunk of a car. Later, the man holding her said she had not been the intended target. The episode includes descriptions of sexual violence, and Cooper opens with a warning.

The second half covers the part of her story that drew the most public attention. She was released near her mother's home in Huntington Beach, and says she sensed hostility from police almost as soon as they arrived. Investigators accused Aaron of murder, then accused the couple of staging a hoax inspired by "Gone Girl," while she went through a forensic examination. Her family hired criminal defense attorneys.

The interview has drawn about 38,000 views in its first 21 hours, roughly eight times the channel's usual first day for a full episode. Many commenters say they first heard her story through the Netflix documentary "American Nightmare," which she mentions early on.

The episode fits a run of related uploads. Last week's guest, philosopher Kate Manne, discussed consent, how victims respond and why survivors struggle to trust institutions, and short clips from that conversation have continued to appear alongside Huskins' account.

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