Mary Kate Cornett says “no one” has apologized for spreading a salacious rumor about her online.
Cornett, who is a freshman at Ole Miss, claimed that the rumor was spread by ESPN host Pat McAfee on his self-titled talk show in February 2025. On the show, McAfee, 37, discussed gossip circulating on social media about a student at the university who allegedly slept with her boyfriend’s father. The host did not say her name, but other sports personalities picked up the story and used it in their coverage.
As a result, Cornett received vile messages on social media and in her Ole Miss dorm. She’s since moved to emergency housing and switched to online courses.
“Having the entire internet — half of the country — hating you, and calling you disgusting things, telling you to kill yourself, telling you that you’re a horrible person, that you deserve to die. That’s a really hard thing for a girl to go through,” Cornett said in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, April 2.
She told the outlet that she has “no clue” how the rumor initially began on X, formerly known as Twitter. But when someone posted her photo, name and phone number, she soon became a trending topic and a target of harassment. Someone even sent police to her mother’s house in a phony 911 call, NBC reported Wednesday.
“I was having thousands of calls come through,” Cornett said. “Thousands of texts coming through. Calling me a whore, calling me a slut, telling me I deserve to die. … All because of an internet rumor that has zero truth to it.”
McAfee has not publicly addressed his role in spreading the rumor. Us Weekly has reached out to ESPN for comment.
“I’m not a public figure you can go talk about on your show to get more views,” said Cornett, who teared up while discussing the impact of the rumor and how it’s smeared her reputation.
“I don’t think that these boys realize what they’re doing to people,” she added. “It’s awful. It’s awful. And having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world. It makes you feel so alone.”
According to NBC News’ Tom Llamas, “Cornett says no one has apologized.”
Earlier this week, she told The Athletic that she and her legal team were planning on taking action against McAfee and ESPN.
“I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” Cornett said the outlet. “You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”
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