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Pat McAfee has finally apologized over the Mary Kate Cornett situation.
Earlier this year, the 18-year-old Ole Miss student faced online harassment after a false rumor about her and her boyfriend’s father spread on the Internet.
Cornett called out McAfee and several Barstool Sports personalities out for “ruining her life” and revealed she planned to sue their respective media companies for allowing the rumor to spread on their platforms.
“I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” she said. “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.”
On Wednesday, McAfee revealed that he had a sit-down meeting with the Cornette family and issued a formal apology to them on-air during his show.
“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 played in his daughter, Mary Kate’s, pain.”
“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 played in his daughter, Mary Kate’s, pain.” – Pat McAfee apologizing for sharing a false rumor about an 18-year-old Ole Miss student on his show. pic.twitter.com/pdFhAeWkAX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 23, 2025
McAfee also spoke about why it took him so long to address the Mary Kate Cornett situation publicly.
“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 a part 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.”