ESPN star Pat McAfee is in serious hot water.
A college student is ready to take him to court.
And Pat McAfee turned red with rage after this college student’s bombshell accusation.
College student claims ESPN host ruined her life with false rumor
University of Mississippi student Mary Kate Cornett has been living through a nightmare for weeks.
The 19-year-old Ole Miss freshman saw her world turned upside down after ESPN host Pat McAfee broadcast a completely false rumor about her personal life to millions of viewers.
“Having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world,” Cornett told NBC News while fighting back tears. “It makes you feel so alone. It’s a horrible experience.”
The whole mess began when lies about Cornett started spreading on YikYak, an anonymous messaging app used by college students.
Things spiraled out of control fast. Within just 90 minutes, Cornett noticed people staring at her on campus. Her name was suddenly trending on X with hundreds of posts falsely identifying her in the fake scandal.
Then McAfee made everything infinitely worse.
McAfee broadcast the rumor without fact-checking
The former NFL punter turned ESPN personality featured the salacious rumor on “The Pat McAfee Show” back on February 26.
McAfee spent over two minutes discussing what he called an alleged “ménage à trois” at Ole Miss involving a “K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend.”
“At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by . . . everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend,” McAfee told his massive audience. “And then it was made public . . . that’s the absolute worst-case situation.”
Not content with just putting it on television, McAfee posted a clip to his 3.2 million X followers with the caption “What’s going on at Ole Miss” and laughing emojis. That post has been viewed 1.8 million times and shockingly remains online today.
When reached for comment, ESPN and McAfee both declined to say anything.
Harassment followed the innocent student everywhere
The fallout for Cornett has been brutal and relentless.
Police showed up at her mother’s home in Houston with guns drawn during what appears to be a “swatting” incident – when someone makes a false report to trick police into raiding an innocent person’s home.
Internet trolls leaked her phone number, unleashing a flood of harassment. Cornett received “thousands” of calls and texts, with some saying she “deserved to die.”
The situation got so bad that Cornett could barely leave her dorm room and was forced to switch to online classes.
“This has affected me in such an awful way and has practically ruined my life,” Cornett said. She added that McAfee “never once reached out to ask me if this was true or for me to give any sort of statement to him.”
“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that an ESPN sports broadcaster would be talking about a 19-year-old girl’s ‘sex scandal’ that was completely false,” she added.
Legal storm brewing for ESPN host
Cornett isn’t taking this lying down.
Her attorney, Monica Uddin, says what happened is both cyberbullying and clear grounds for a defamation lawsuit.
“Defamation has existed for a long time. You can’t lie about someone with impunity – and that’s what has happened to Mary Kate,” Uddin stated. “You can’t lie for money.”
The lawyer dismissed potential excuses that McAfee might use in his defense.
“Not using her name is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, saying ‘allegedly’ is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card,” Uddin explained. “These people are responsible for what they have done to her.”
The 19-year-old isn’t backing down. She’s lawyered up and ready to go after McAfee, ESPN, and anyone else who helped trash her reputation.
Cornett intends to take legal action, and her attorney confirmed she’s not bluffing.
Uddin said Cornett is prepared to be deposed to prove her case.
Justin Cornett, Mary Kate’s father, is furious about what happened to his daughter.
“The people that did this to her and her boyfriend and his dad deserve what they have coming to them,” he said.
He also had a blunt message for McAfee: “When you have a microphone and you have a platform, you have a responsibility to take on that role with the respect of the people you report on being paramount. If this were to happen to him, his daughter, his wife, someone he loves, he sure wouldn’t like it.”
Cornett tried defending herself the day after McAfee’s show aired. She posted on Instagram: “First of all, this rumor is 100% completely false and it is quite frankly, inexcusable that such disturbing accusations went viral.”
Now she’s warning others about how quickly lies can spread online.
“If this happened to me, this could happen to anyone,” she said. “And there’s nothing I could have done to prevent what happened to me.”
