A teen attending Ole Miss is taking on an ESPN host and other sports pundits for spreading a salacious rumor about her, though the former TV personality continues to try to mitigate the damage. Pat McAfee was one of multiple people who amplified online gossip earlier this year that then-18-year-old college freshman Mary Kate Cornett had slept with her boyfriend's father. "I have since learned that the story was not true, and that my show played a role in the anguish caused to a great family, and especially to a young woman," McAfee said Wednesday on his show, per USA Today. "I think you all know from tuning into this program that I never want to be a source of negativity or contribute to another human's suffering."
Others who piled on to Cornett over the phony whispers included staffers from Dave Portnoy's Barstool Sports, as well as ESPN radio hosts in St. Louis, per the Athletic. Both Portnoy and McAfee addressed the gossip in April, though McAfee didn't offer an actual apology, simply calling it a "very terrible situation." Now, McAfee, who never addressed Cornett by name on his show, says he's met with her and her family to apologize, and that the delay in talking about it publicly until now was because "there was a lot going on behind the scenes."
In April, Cornett told the Athletic that, due to the harassment she received from the incident, she received "vile messages slipped under her door" and on her voicemail. She also says she was forced to move into emergency housing and switch to online classes after being informed by campus police that she was being targeted. "I deeply regret all the pain that this caused," McAfee noted on his show Wednesday. "I hated watching what our show was a part of, in her interviews and reading about it. And my hope is that this can be something that we all learn from going forward."
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Dad Justin Cornett tells NBC News his family is appreciative of McAfee's mea culpa. "It was refreshing to stand by Mary Kate's side and see a man that made a mistake look her in the eyes and apologize with sincerity," he said. He adds to the Athletic: "The matter was settled to each party's satisfaction," suggesting earlier legal action that had been threatened on the Cornetts' part is now moot.
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