A student at the University of Mississippi who was the subject of an Internet rumor is sailing for the consequences after she says the lie, which was amplified by people, including the popular presenter and Analyst of ESPN, Pat Mcafee, “ruined” her life. Mary Kate Cornett, 19, told NBC News on Wednesday that she and her family have faced a barrage of harassment and insults in the weeks since a false rumor about her and her boyfriend’s father became viral online.
“Having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world,” said Cornett, while destroying. “It makes you feel so alone. It’s a horrible experience.”
The rumor that involved Cornett, whose experience was detailed in a profile published by The Athletic earlier this week, was referenced in “The Pat Mcafee Show” for the host, a former NFL player, and his guests when discussing an alleged “Ménage à trois” in Ole Miss. Cornett and her boyfriend were not mentioned by name in the ESPN program.
In the episode, which was broadcast on February 26, McAfee says that a “frat from Ole Miss” supposedly “had a KD (Kappa Delta) girlfriend.”
“In this exact moment, this is what … everyone on the Internet: Dad had sex with his son’s girlfriend,” he says, he added: “And then became public … That is the absolute situation of worse case.”
The conversation returned to university football after almost two and a half minutes. Mcafee shared a clip on online discussion to its 3.2 million followers. The publication, which is subtitled “What is happening in Ole Miss” with two emojis of the face of laughter, was still on the social networks platform until Wednesday and had been seen 1.8 million times.
The circulation of the rumor was enough, said Cornett, to derail his life more.
ESPN and Mcafee declined to comment.
While the Internet has driven people unknown to stardom during the night, Cornett’s experience has underlined the most toxic nature of virality.
Cornett said his friends told him for the first time about a rumor that was spreading in Yikyak, an anonymous application based on messages used by some university students, about a university student at his university and in his brotherhood that was sleeping with his boyfriend’s father.
In an hour and a half of the rumor extension, Cornett said he already began to notice people looking at them on the campus. Finally, he saw that his name was a topic of main trend in X, with “hundreds and hundreds” of publications that falsely identified it as the person in the center of the rumor.
She said she, her boyfriend and her father were surprised.
“It was crazy. Everything happened very fast,” he said. “I was in ruins. I felt so helpless and just because many people hated me for something I had no idea.”
After the McAfee show, others, including two personalities affiliated with Barstool Sports, referred to the online rumor. KFC Barstool published a video about the incident in his personal account that was later eliminated, according to Athletic. The publication of Jack Mac, which was still in X until Wednesday, promotes a meme coin that contains the name of Cornett.
A Barstool representative Sports did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Dave Portnoy, the owner of Barstool Sports, denied the participation of his website by spreading the rumor in a statement to other media.
“Barstool Sports did not mention or spread this rumor in any of our channels owned by Barstool,” Rolling Stone told Rolling Stone. “Our editors instinctively made the decision to avoid this story, since it seemed that there was a high probability that it could have been manufactured.”
In his statement to the publication, he said that he is aware that one of the company’s “employees published something in his personal social, but we did not control them.”
Monica Uddin, Cornett’s lawyer, said she believes that what happened to her client is harassment and reason for a defamation case.
“The defamation has existed for a long time. You cannot lie about someone with impunity, and that is what has happened to Mary Kate,” he said. “You can’t lie for money.”
“Not using your name is not a” leaving prison “card, saying that” supposedly “is not a” getting out of jail, “said the lawyer.” These people are responsible for what they have done. ”
I felt so helpless and just because many people hated me for something I had no idea.
-Mary Kate Cornett, 19
Cornett said he intends to take legal actions against McAfee and ESPN, and potentially to others that, they said, helped spread the rumor.
Uddin said Cornett is prepared to be deposed to prove his case.
Since the rumor began to circulate, Cornett said nothing about his life has been the same.
“This has affected me in such a horrible way and practically ruined my life,” said Cornett, adding that McAfee “never communicated to ask me if this was true or for me to give him some kind of statement.”
“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that a sports station ESPN would be talking about the ‘sexual scandal’ of a 19 -year -old girl who was completely false,” said Cornett.
Police appeared to Cornett’s mother’s house in Houston, he said, with firearms in what she described as an apparent incident of “hitting”, which is the act of making a false report of extreme violence to obtain an overwhelming response from the law to someone’s house.
NBC News has reviewed the screenshots of the images of the incident security chamber, provided by Cornett’s lawyer, which seems to confirm that the “blow” occurred.
NBC News has communicated with the Houston Police Department to comment.
Cornett said his number was shared online and that he was overwhelmed with “thousands” of calls and text messages, and some told him that “he deserved to die.” She said she could barely leave her bedroom and had to change to classes online.
Cornett denounced people who talked about her online, suggesting that they did it by influence.
“I want these famous people to know that I was not famous before this,” he said. “… I am a first -year student from the 19 -year -old Normal University. That’s all. I was happy. I had a large group of friends.”
“I am not a public figure that you can talk about in your program to get more visits,” he added.
Justin Cornett, Cornett’s father, said that, as a father, he was “worried” that his daughter “did not recover.”
“You just want to protect them,” he said. “He is a beautiful person. He has a tender heart and a kind soul.”
Now, he said “wants justice.”
“The people who did this to her, her boyfriend and her father deserve what has come to them,” he said.
When asked what would tell McAfee, Justin Cornett said: “When he has a microphone and has a platform, he has the responsibility of assuming that role with the respect of the people who informs about being essential. If this happened to him, his daughter, his wife, someone who loves, would not like. When you have a microphone, you have a responsibility and you must be taken seriously.”
For days after the rumor first flooded the Internet, Cornett said he could not sleep and that he would vomit after experiencing anxiety. He defended himself online, sharing an Instagram post the day after the McAfee show was broadcast.
“In the first place, this rumor is 100% completely false and, frankly, it is inexcusable that such disturbing accusations became viral,” he wrote at that time, adding that “cyber attacks based on nothing more than lies and misinformation occur too often.”
He issued a similar warning about the dangers of how false information can be extended on social networks during his interview with NBC News on Wednesday.
“If this happened to me, this could happen to anyone,” he said. “And there is nothing I may have done to avoid what happened to me.”
