Earlier this year, Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett was the victim of social media rumors about her relationship with her boyfriend. Now, she is speaking out against individuals, including Pat McAfee, who amplified that rumor and turned her life upside down.
Cornett’s name was rampant on social media in February thanks to unseemly rumors about her personal life. Those rumors made it all the way to The Pat McAfee Show, where the host inserted the story into a conversation with ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter about Ole Miss quarterback and NFL Draft prospect Jaxson Dart.
In a feature piece at The Athletic written by Katie Strang, Cornett and her family provide harrowing details about the horrific experience of seeing her and her family’s names dragged into the salacious scandal that they continue to proclaim was entirely made up. These include swatting attempts, abuse, harassment, and Cornett having to move into emergency housing at Ole Miss.
As the rumor spread, Cornett removed her name from outside her dorm room, but she still had vile messages slipped under her door. Campus police told her she was a target, and she moved into emergency housing and switched to online courses.
Houston police showed up to her mother’s house, guns drawn, in the early hours of Feb. 27, in an apparent instance of “swatting” – when someone falsely reports a crime in hopes of dispatching emergency responders to a residence. According to security camera footage and a police report reviewed by The Athletic, the homicide division responded to the call.
After her phone number was posted online, Cornett’s voicemail was filled with degrading messages. In one, a man laughs as he says that she’s been a “naughty girl” and cheerfully asks her to give him a call. Another male caller says that he has a son, too, in case she’s interested. Several people texted her obscene messages, calling her a “whore” and a “slut” and advised her to kill herself.
Cornett and her lawyer, Monica Uddin, addressed McAfee’s specific role in spreading false social media rumors on national television and the further harm they caused. Also named in the article are former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown, Barstool Sports personalities Jack Mac and KFC, and ESPN St. Louis radio host Doug Vaughn for their roles in bringing further light to the misinformation that was out there.
“They don’t think it matters, because they don’t know who I am and they think that I deserve it,” Cornett said. “But I don’t.”
Added Uddin: “They elevated a lie from the worst corners of (X) to millions of general sports fans just to get a few more clicks and ultimately a few more dollars. While they don’t have to deal with it after it airs, the lie is chained to Mary Kate for the rest of her life.”
In the days after the story broke, Mary Kate Cornett and her father shared in a Facebook post that she was considering legal action against McAfee and others. The story from The Athletic reaffirmed that. None of the particulars mentioned, including ESPN and McAfee, responded to comment for the article.
McAfee famously emerged unscathed following a defamation lawsuit from Brett Favre over comments made about the Mississippi welfare scandal. But this is obviously a very different story with a previously anonymous college student who has had her life severely impacted by online rumors shared on his nationwide program.
McAfee has a history of confronting criticism and controversy head-on, whether it be his feuds with now-former ESPN executives, his role in platforming Aaron Rodgers’ conspiracy theories and wild accusations, or even polls about his College GameDay popularity. Strang’s feature piece is not shy in detailing some of those previous controversies and even references the program’s opening titles, which include the line “p.s. don’t sue us.”
Given the sensitivity of this story and Cornett’s looming legal threat, it will be interesting to see if McAfee uses his program to comment on the matter or stays silent in the aftermath of this explosive story.