ESPN's Pat McAfee doesn't apologize for Mary Kate Cornett situation, but promises 'silver lining'

Pat McAfee broke his silence on the Mary Kate Cornett situation on Tuesday at his "Big Night Aht," a week after he was accused of recklessly amplifying false rumors about the Ole Miss freshman's personal life.

The former NFL punter was delivering a monologue about another legally prickly situation — Brett Favre's defamation lawsuit against him that was later settled — when he turned to Cornett, without ever naming her. He did not apologize, but he did say he didn't want to be the cause of negativity in a person's life and promised a "silver lining."

McAfee's full comments:

"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, ever. That is not what I want to do. For all of these events, you f***ing know it that my lawyers are Pittsburgh lawyers and they're in here tonight. I do believe that they have a suite here that I have certainly contributed to. They have the same mindset as me, empathy but understanding reality.

"For that whole thing that's happening, I didn't want to add any more negativity as it was taking place, like I did — We will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation. You can have that promise from me. It won't be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward."

McAfee was strongly criticized last week after the publication of an article by The Athletic's Katie Strang, in which the 18-year-old Cornett laid out the effects the false rumor has had on her life since McAfee, personalities from Barstool Sports and others started spreading it.

Mary Kate Cornett on Pat McAfee: 'You're ruining my life'

Specifically, McAfee focused on the rumor on Feb. 26 with Adam Schefter on as a guest of ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show." Like in his above comments, McAfee never named Cornett, but he did provide enough detail to make the story easy for any viewer to find.

In the aftermath, Cornett alleged she was forced to move to emergency housing while withdrawing from in-person classes at Ole Miss and received a torrent of voicemails and texts with degrading messages, some of which urged her to kill herself. She also alleged her boyfriend has been bullied, her 89-year-old grandfather received a call in the middle of the night and her mother's house received a swatting, in which a crime is falsely reported to prompt an armed response from police.

McAfee alluded to "a lot of people" saying Cornett should sue him. One of those people is Cornett, as she told The Athletic she plans to take legal action against both McAfee and ESPN:

Cornett engaged legal representation and said she intends to take action against McAfee and ESPN, which airs his show, and potentially others involved in spreading the rumor. "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."

McAfee joined ESPN as an analyst in 2019 and brought his "Pat McAfee Show" to the network in 2023 on an eight-year, $85 million deal. The show has been a source of considerable controversy since then, including when McAfee apologized for calling Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark a "white bitch" and when his friend Aaron Rodgers alleged Jimmy Kimmel to be a pedophile on air.