Pat McAfee issues public apology to Mary Kate Cornett about viral rumor after face-to-face meeting

ESPN firebrand personality Pat McAfee issued his first public apology for amplifying a salacious online rumor about Ole Miss freshman Mary Kate Cornett in late February during Wednesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN.

“As a lot of you know, on Feb. 26, we were down at the (NFL) Combine, on this particular program, we discussed a very viral internet story about an Ole Miss college student. We weren’t clear at that point where the story originated from. It was all over the internet. Yet by the time we talked about it, the story was everywhere. I 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,” McAfee said Wednesday, just prior to the end of the show’s second hour. “I think you all know from tuning into this program that I never want to be a source of negativity or contribute to another human’s suffering. And I can now happily share with you that I recently got to meet Mary Kate and her family. I got a chance to sincerely apologize to them and acknowledge what I said about Mark Kate was based solely on what others were saying on the internet or had been previously reported by others, and we had no personal knowledge about Mary Kate or her personal life. As a Girl Dad, I was very thankful for the opportunity to let Mr. Cornett know that I was wildly regretful for the part that our show and our program played in his daughter, Mary Kate’s, pain.

“I know many of you are wondering why I or we haven’t addressed this topic until now. It’s a fair question. But as you might imagine, there was a lot going on behind the scenes since this all happened. The most important element on the timing is — I personally, a decision that I made — I wanted to talk to the family first before addressing it publicly,” McAfee continued. “And I can now say I had the opportunity to meet them, chat with them, and they’re wonderful people. And I’m very thankful they gave me the opportunity to tell them how sorry I was that this all happened and that our program was apart of this. I deeply regret the pain that was caused. I hated watching what our show was apart of in her interviews and reading about it. And my hope is that this can be something that we all learn from going forward. I know we certainly have.”

This isn’t the first time McAfee addressed the situation on his show.

In early April, Cornett and her family discussed with NBC Nightly News how the false rumor has negatively impacted her life, especially after famous sports media personalities propagated it. That included McAfee, who discussed the rumor on the Feb. 26 episode of ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show without directly naming Cornett.

The next week, McAfee alluded to a pending legal situation involving Cornett. McAfee acknowledged he “didn’t want to add any more negativity” to the situation during the “Big Night AHT with Pat McAfee and Friends” in Pittsburgh.

“I want to say this – I never, ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life. Ever. That is not what I want to do,” McAfee said without mentioning Cornett.

Mary Kate Cornett’s father calls out Pat McAfee for spreading viral rumor

The father of viral Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett made his strongest appeal yet to controversial ESPN host and analyst Pat McAfee in a sit-down interview with NBC Nightly News that aired in mid-April. Cornett, 19, had recently revealed plans to take legal action against McAfee, ESPN as well as others for helping propagate a salacious online rumor that went viral on X/Twitter in late February.

Duing an early April interview with The Athletic, Cornett and her lawyer accused McAfee, as well as Barstool personalities KFC Barstool and Jack Mac and former NFL player Antonio Brown, of defaming her and publicly spreading “categorically false and defamatory information.” That regarded an alleged sexual relationship with the father of her boyfriend.

In multiple interviews, Cornett detailed the barrage of personal attacks and harassment she and her family have faced in the month since the rumor went viral Feb. 25, which were only heightened after McAfee and others discussed it on their platforms. That included McAfee and his staff discussing a “ménage à trois” at Ole Miss — without directly mentioning any names — during the Feb. 26 episode of The Pat McAfee Show, which airs daily on ESPN at noon ET and is streamed live on YouTube to the show’s 2.8 million subscribers.

Justin Cornett, Mary Kate Cornett’s father, admonished McAfee for the damage his promotion of the online rumor has already had on his daughter and the rest of their family in the NBC News interview.

“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,” Justin Cornett told NBC News. “If this were to happen to him, his daughter, his wife, someone he loves, he sure wouldn’t like it. When you have a microphone, you have a responsibility and it needs to be taken seriously.”