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 Wednesday night. Cornett, 19, 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.
Earlier this week in 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” regarding an alleged sexual relationship with the father of her boyfriend.
In multiple interviews this week, Cornett detailed the barrage of personal attacks and harrassment 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 as part of a Wednesday night segment. “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.”
During the interview with NBC News, Cornett became visibly emotional discussing the negative impact McAfee and the Barstool Sports personalities had on her life, which included hateful online attacks and “thousands” of calls to her personal phone, some saying she “deserved to die.”
“I don’t think these boys realize what they’re doing to people. It’s awful,” Cornett told NBC News through tears in her eyes. “Having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world. It makes you feel so alone. It’s a horrible experience.”
Barstool Sports owner and social media celebrity Dave Portnoy denied any responsibility for his employees’ actions regarding Cornett in a statement to Rolling Stone.
“Barstool Sports did not mention or spread this rumor on any of our Barstool owned channels,” Portnoy told Rolling Stone. “Our editors instinctively made the decision to avoid this story as it seemed there was a high likelihood it could have been fabricated. I do know one of our employees posted something on their personal socials but we don’t control those.”
Cornett’s Houston-based attorney, Monica Uddin, told NBC News that what happened to her client could be considered cyberbullying and grounds for a defamation case, and made clear McAfee not directly naming Cornett on TV is not a viable defense.
“Defamation has existed for a long time. You can’t lie about someone with impunity — and that’s what has happened to Mary Kate. You can’t lie for money,” Uddin told NBC News. “(And) not using her name is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, saying ‘allegedly’ is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. These people are responsible for what they have done to her.”
The Oxford (Miss.) Police are currently investigating the matter after the Cornett family filed a police report and employed a private investigator to look into the original source of the online rumor.
