Ole Miss freshman Mary Kate Cornett is speaking out about how a salacious rumor amplified by ESPN's Pat McAfee has "ruined" life—and she has a pointed message for McAfee himself.
Cornett says she has been viciously harassed online and in person since McAfee spread a rumor on his show that she slept with her boyfriend's father.
McAfee did not name Cornett when he spread the rumor on his self-titled show in February 2025, but it added fuel to the speculation online, especially after other people in sports media spread it following McAfee's coverage.
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In an interview with NBC News, Cornett said that she has gotten death threats and that the scrutiny has "ruined" her life. She told NBC's Tom Llamas:
“Having the entire internet — half of the country — hating you, and calling you disgusting things, telling you to kill yourself, telling you that you’re a horrible person, that you deserve to die. That’s a really hard thing for a girl to go through."
Cornett has since had to move to emergency housing and switch to online courses at Ole Miss for her safety.
Cornett explained that she has no idea how the rumor got started on X.
But posts featuring a grainy video clip along with Cornett's photo and contact information quickly spread like wildfire earlier this year. Some have theorized that AI was used to create images with Cornett's likeness.
Given that X has basically become a platform dedicated to "red pill" culture, which is rife with often violent misogyny, Cornett was, unsurprisingly, quickly on the receiving end of terrifying harassment.
She told Llamas:
“I was having thousands of calls come through, thousands of texts coming through. Calling me a whore, calling me a slut, telling me I deserve to die..."
"All because of an internet rumor that has zero truth to it.”
The harassment even escalated to the point that someone made a phony 911 call to her mother's house.
Cornett delivered a pointed message for McAfee:
“I’m not a public figure you can go talk about on your show to get more views."
The response to Cornett's interview on X has been predictably vile, but some have her back for speaking out.
In a previous interview with The Athletic, Cornett said she is planning to take legal action against McAfee and others.
"I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done."
"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 has yet to respond.
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