The founder of Barstool Sports wants to apologize to the college freshman who was the victim of a false viral rumor amplified by two personalities affiliated with the popular sports site, he said Thursday, NBC News reported.
Dave Portnoy said he understood why the family of Mary Kate Cornett, who told NBC News this month that the false claims had “practically ruined” her life, was “pissed.”
“It’s a vicious rumor,” he said. “I’m sad, and I wish we didn’t play any part in it.”
The false claims about Cornett, a 19-year-old student at the University of Mississippi, were circulating online when ESPN host and analyst Pat McAfee discussed them during a show in February.
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McAfee did not name Cornett, but he discussed a rumor about a University of Mississippi student’s sleeping with her boyfriend’s father.
He attributed the claims to “everybody on the internet.”
After McAfee shared a clip of the discussion with his 3.2 million followers on X, at least two people associated with Barstool Sports referred to the rumor in posts on their personal X accounts that have since been deleted.
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In a statement this month to Rolling Stone, Portnoy denied his site’s involvement in promoting the rumor — which he said was most likely “fabricated” — and said one of his employees “posted on something on their personal socials but we don’t control those.”
In an interview with NBC News, Portnoy said he wanted to “throw up” after he learned his site was connected to the rumor.
“Morally we were wrong,” he said Thursday. “I was bragging that morally I thought we were right.”
Portnoy said he hopes to meet with Cornett’s family, though he said he’s not sure “how you put the toothpaste back in the tube.”
Portnoy said that his lawyers and Cornett’s lawyers have been in communication and that Cornett’s lawyers offered two paths — a lawsuit or mediation. He said he planned to pursue mediation.
Cornett’s family declined to comment.
Her family’s lawyer has said she believes Cornett was the victim of cyberbullying and has grounds for a defamation suit.
Cornett previously told NBC News that she and her family were harassed and faced a barrage of insults in the weeks after the rumor took hold.
“It all happened so fast,” Cornett said. “I was just in shambles. I just felt so helpless and so alone, because so many people were hating on me for something that I had no idea anything about.”
McAfee and his attorney have not responded to requests for comment. ESPN did not respond to request for comment.
During a show Wednesday, McAfee described being sued by former football star Brett Favre and said: “I’m cool with Brett. Just like the current situation that is happening where I have a lot of people saying that I should be sued. I want to say this: I never ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life.”
“We will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation,” he said. “So you can have that promise from me. It won’t be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward.”
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