In February, an 18-year-old Ole Miss student, Mary Kate Cornett, became the subject of a viral internet rumor that claimed she’d cheated on her boyfriend with his father. Now, the college freshman says she wants to sue sports commentator Pat McAfee for airing out the rumor on his podcast, ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show.
The rumor about Cornett and her boyfriend’s father first appeared on YikYak, a location-based app that lets users post anonymous messages, on February 25. It quickly traveled to X, where users found images of Cornett on her Instagram and promoted them in viral posts. Then, in a February 26 episode of his podcast, McAfee referred to “some Ole Miss frat bro” whose “dad had sex with his girlfriend,” helping fan the flames of what quickly became a misogynistic cyberattack on the college freshman. In a new interview, she told the New York Times that she had to take her classes online and move into emergency housing at Ole Miss. Her phone number was apparently leaked online, and her family’s home was swatted after someone falsely reported a crime at the address.
Cornett released a statement to Instagram on February 27 begging people to leave her alone and saying that the rumor was “100% completely false” and that it’s “inexcusable that such disturbing accusations went viral.” She hasn’t posted since, and comments have been turned off on all of her posts.
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But in her Times interview, Cornett says she intends to take legal action against McAfee and ESPN, his podcast distributor. Although McAfee never named Cornett specifically during his podcast episode, she argues, discussing the unsubstantiated claim added fuel to an already blazing fire. “When the more popular people started posting, that’s when it really, really changed,” she said, adding that she can’t “even walk on campus without people taking pictures of me or screaming my name or saying super vulgar, disgusting things to me.”
Apparently, Cornett isn’t just interested in holding McAfee accountable — her lawyer, Monica Uddin, told the Times she plans to take legal action against others who have been involved in spreading the falsehood, including people who attempted to profit off the rumor by creating a meme coin in her name. “They elevated a lie … to millions of general sports fans just to get a few more clicks and ultimately a few more dollars,” Uddin said. “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.” Cornett added, “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.”
McAfee is no stranger to spewing misogyny — last June, he called Caitlin Clark a “white bitch” and then joked about convicted abuser Larry Nassar a month later. Speaking about McAfee and other members of sports media who amplified her rumor, Cornett said, “They don’t think it matters, because they don’t know who I am and they think that I deserve it. But I don’t.”
The Cut has reached out to Pat McAfee for comment and will update this post when we hear back. ESPN declined to comment.
