Dave Portnoy Apologies for Role in Rumor That “Ruined” Student’s Life
Dave Portnoy is owning up to a mistake.
After University of Mississippi student Mary Kate Cornett expressed her disappointment in celebrity personalities like podcasters at Portnoy’s Barstool Sports and ESPN’s Pat McAfee amplifying a false story about her having sex with her boyfriend’s father, Portnoy said he understood why she was “pissed.”
“It’s a vicious rumor,” Portnoy told NBC News in a statement April 10. “I’m sad, and I wish we didn’t play any part in it.”
In February, his employees Kevin Clancy and Jack McGuire, each weighed in on the rumor online in now-deleted posts on X. And while he previously denied his company’s involvement in a statement to Rolling Stone, Portnoy now says that amplifying the story on Barstool’s platform “practically ruined” the 19-year-old’s life.
Meanwhile, McAfee recently alluded to his own wrongdoing in the viral onslaught against Cornett. Although he did not mention the student by name, he said during a live event for his show April 9 that he “didn’t want to add more negativity as it was taking place,” per The Athletic, and “will try to make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation.”
Cornett, for her part, has detailed just how much the rumor has affected her daily life, including having to move into emergency housing on campus for extra security, and attending her classes online. Her phone number also leaked online, subjecting her to “thousands” of calls and texts sending her threats and calling her vulgar names.
“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,” the 19-year-old told The Athletic in a story published April 1. “I just feel defeated honestly.”
And she emphasized that it wouldn’t have spun so far out of control had the bigger media personalities not drawn attention to it.
“When the more popular people started posting, that’s when it really, really changed,” she added to the publication, claiming that they provided a platform to “something completely false.”
As Cornett later added to NBC News, “I want these famous people to know that I was not famous before this. I’m not a public figure that you can go talk about on your show to get more views.”
She emphasized, “Them pressing this and pushing it farther, made my situation so much worse.”
Although Cornett has not expressed plans to take legal action against Barstool or Portnoy, her attorney told NBC News she plans to sue ESPN and McAfee for defamation, telling the outlet, “You can’t lie about someone with impunity—and that’s what has happened to Mary Kate.”
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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