What did Pat McAfee say about spreading Mary Kate Cornett's controversy? ESPN analyst admits to apologizing to the Ole Miss college student's family

Pat McAfee is apologizing for the rumor she started about Mary Kate Cornett that “practically ruined” her life.

As reported by People Magazine, the ESPN host addressed a viral rumor from February about Cornett, a 19-year-old Ole Miss student, who was accused of acting inappropriately. In April, Cornett sat with NBC Nightly News for an interview where she slammed McAfee for perpetuating the rumor.

“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that an ESPN sports broadcaster would be talking about a 19-year-old girl’s ‘s*x scandal’ that was completely false,” Cornett said at the time.

Now, about four months later, Pat McAfee is acknowledging the role he played in falsely reporting on the show and revealed he'd met with Cornett and her family and asked for their forgiveness.

“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," said Pat McAfee. “I think you all know from this show that I never want to be a source of negativity or contribute to another humans suffering." He went on, "I can now happily share with you that I recently got to meet Mary Kate and her family and I got a chance to sincerely apologize to them."

Pat McAfee says he's "regretful" of his actions as a "girl dad" himself: Read more

In his acknowledgement, Pat McAfee said that it was an "honor" to have met the family and to be able to:

"acknowledge that what I said about Mary Kate was based solely on what others were saying on the internet or had been previously reported by others" rather than based on any reporting of his own. "We had no knowledge about Mary Kate or her personal life," McAfee said. "As a girl dad, I also was very thankful for the opportunity to let Mr. Cornett know that I was wildly regretful for the part that our show, our program, played in his daughter Mary Kate's pain."

Reflecting on why it took him months to speak about his mistake, which he said was a "fair question" from the audience, the former NFL star said:

"As you might imagine, there was a lot going on behind the scenes since this all happened," Pat McAfee said, adding that the "most important element on the timing" was that he wanted to meet with Cornett and her family before "addressing it publicly" on his show. "They’re wonderful people, and I’m very thankful they gave me the opportunity to tell them how sorry I was," he said of the Cornetts. “I deeply regret the pain that was caused. I hated watching what our show was a part of,” McAfee added. "And my hope is that this can be something we all learn from going forward. I know we certainly have.”

Monica Uddin, a lawyer representing the Cornett family, told Today in a statement via email that “the matter has been resolved to each party’s satisfaction.” In her interview back in April, Cornett said she was subjected to intense hate online as a result of the rumor, with people even calling her a "horrible" person and suggesting that she take her own life.

She said that the rumor stemmed from the YikYak app, where an anonymous message about a fellow Ole Miss sorority sister emerged. However, things took a turn for the worse, and soon, X began linking Cornett to the anonymous woman in question.

“It was so insane. It all happened so fast,” she said. “I was just in shambles. I just felt so helpless and so alone because so many people were hating on me for something that I had no idea anything about.”

On NBC, Cornett said she was horrified to learn that the rumor had made its way to Pat McAfee's show, noting at the time that she was looking into suing.

“I’m not a public figure that you can go talk about on your show to get more views,” she said. Her father said he wanted "justice" for his daughter, saying, “The people that did this to her and her boyfriend and his dad deserve what they have coming to them."

Daily Mail has reported that the rumor was never proven, despite the FBI looking into it. However, Pat McAfee was not the only figure to comment on the situation. Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy also weighed in, though he, too, has since apologized for the same. Per the outlet, he said back in April:

'I wish we didn’t publish it even if it was only for 7 minutes. I’d be p***ed if I was the family too. I’d like to think we’re better than publishing fake rumors of people not in the public eye, regardless of how viral the story was.'

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