Pat McAfee apologized to Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d Wednesday, months after amplifying an unsubstantiated rumor involving Cornett in February, and the subsequent fallout, which forced her to switch to online classes and move out of her dormitory.<\/p>\n
The rumor, which involved a false claim involving Cornett\u2019s romantic life, started on the anonymous messaging app YikYak, before making its way to X and later the sports talk world, including posts by Barstool personalities KFC Barstool and Jack Mac, a discussion by ESPN radio hosts in St. Louis and a mention on McAfee\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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, Mary Kate Cornett,\u201d McAfee said on his show on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Athletic in April<\/a>, Cornett, who was 18 at the time, said that after the rumor took off, she had vile messages slipped under her dorm room door. Campus police told her she was a target, and she switched to online classes and moved to emergency housing.<\/p>\n The Athletic has reached out to Cornett and her lawyer for comment on McAfee\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n Once Cornett\u2019s phone number was posted online, she told The Athletic that she received degrading voicemails and that someone created a cryptocurrency memecoin with her name attached to it. Police showed up at Cornett\u2019s mother\u2019s house, her boyfriend faced online bullying and her grandfather received a taunting call in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like people to be held accountable for what they\u2019ve done,\u201d Cornett said in April. \u201cYou\u2019re 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\u2019m so anxious about what\u2019s going to happen for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n