Who is Mary Kate Cornett? Why is the college student planning legal action against Pat McAfee?

Talk about the courage of an 18-year-old going after someone like Pat McAfee.
Mary Kate Cornett might be only 18, but she won’t see her life falling apart due to a false rumor going viral on the internet.

Mary Kate Cornett, 18, a University of Mississippi college student, told The Athletic she wants “people to be held accountable for what they’ve done” in giving life to an unfounded rumor that she slept with her boyfriend’s father.
The Ole Miss college freshman found herself at the center of the vile internet rumor that gained traction in late February. She said in a new interview with The Athletic published on Tuesday, April 1, “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.”

According to The Athletic report, in a February 26 taping of ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, host McAfee and some of his colleagues (described as his “stooges” by him) reacted to an unsubstantiated rumor posted online the day before about Cornett. Although during the two-minute segment, McAfee didn’t name Cornett and emphasized the word “allegedly” in talking about the unverified online claim.
Moreover, The Athletic reported that two Barstool Sports personalities referenced the rumor on their social media accounts.
Although she and her family have previously denied speculation about the viral rumor that gained traction in February, calling it "categorically false," according to The Athletic, Cornett is planning legal action against ESPN and others, possibly for their roles in “spreading the rumor.”


According to The Athletic, the agony caused Cornett to remove her name outside her dorm room, temporarily relocate to emergency housing, switch to online classes and continue to spend most of her time in her room. Along with receiving vulgar comments in person and people taking her picture on campus, the 18-year-old has received vile and sexist messages after her phone number was posted online.
“I (can’t) even walk on campus without people taking pictures of me or screaming my name or saying super vulgar, disgusting things to me,” Cornett told The Athletic.
Moreover, the rumor has even allegedly had a terrifying effect on her loved ones. Her mother’s home was reportedly the scene of a "swatting" hoax that involved the Houston police, and other members of Cornett’s life have also been subject to alleged threats, including her boyfriend, Solis, and her grandfather.

In late February, Cornett slammed McAfee and others in a statement shared on a GoFundMe page organized by her father, Justin, with all proceeds to be “used to provide seed capital establishing a foundation focused on helping innocent victims of similar defamatory cyber attacks.”
The statement said, “I have been the victim of a deliberate and coordinated cyberattack spreading categorically false and defamatory information.”
It added, “… Irresponsible independent social media influencers with apparent ties to Barstool Sports and even major public figures like Antonio Brown and Pat McAfee who hosts ESPN’s College Game Day have shared these utter and complete lies with zero interest in the truth, but instead spreading outlandish conjecture. No one affiliated with these organizations ever reached out to us for comment. Most alarmingly, my personal contact information has been doxed illegally shared publicly, putting my personal safety at risk. Many notes sent suggest I even take my own life.”
Justin expanded on the helplessness he’s felt as a father throughout the distressing ordeal, while telling The Athletic, “The only way I could describe it is it’s like you’re walking with your daughter on the street, holding her hand, and a car mirror snags her shirt and starts dragging her down the road. And all you can do is watch. You can’t catch the car. You can’t stop it from happening. You just have to sit there and watch your kid be destroyed.” He added, “These folks … they can just say whatever they want and destroy a young girl’s life forever.”

Cornett, who has since pivoted to online learning at the university, fears she’ll have trouble in the job market over the matter, and has pondered what her future children might think. She added, “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 GoFundMe set up in Cornett’s name has since raised more than $26,000.

Patrick Justin McAfee is an American sports analyst, color commentator, and former professional football punter and kickoff specialist. He is an analyst on ESPN's College GameDay, is the host of the sports talk show The Pat McAfee Show, and is signed to WWE as the color commentator for Raw and an occasional wrestler.

McAfee was a placekicker for the West Virginia Mountaineers and was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL draft. He played in Super Bowl XLIV in his rookie year, where the Colts lost against the New Orleans Saints. McAfee made two Pro Bowls, and he was an All-Pro in 2014, during his eight-year career in the National Football League (NFL).
Since retiring from football in February 2017, McAfee has been a football analyst. He was a guest host for Fox Sports' college and NFL broadcasts in late 2018, before being announced as part of ESPN's Thursday Night College Football team in July 2019.
Additionally, he makes regular appearances for Get Up!. He currently licenses The Pat McAfee Show to the ESPN network, which then simulcasts the show on ESPN+ and is also broadcast on YouTube.