Month: April 2025

ESPN star Pat McAfee aims to keep his show on the network lighthearted and entertaining. However, it’s become clear that he recently stepped over the line and caused some real hurt by amplifying a false story, and now the victim is speaking out.

During an episode of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN in February, the sports media personality shared a baseless rumor that he said “captivated the internet.” 

“Some Ole Miss frat bro, k? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend,” McAfee said on the show. He then stressed the word “allegedly,” presumably recognizing that the story was unverified and could be untrue before sharing it anyway.

“At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by … everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend,” McAfee said. “And then it was made public … that’s the absolute worst-case situation.”

The problem is, the story was completely and unequivocally false, and McAfee played a big part in spreading it.

While McAfee never mentioned the 18-year-old college freshman at the center of the rumor by name, he amplified the story to millions of people watching on ESPN as well as his 2.8 million YouTube subscribers. And now the victim of the baseless rumor is speaking out.

In an interview with The Athletic, Mary Kate Cornett broke her silence as she called out McAfee for “ruining my life” and wants him held accountable.

Cornett said that after McAfee shared the rumor on his story, appearing to add some legitimacy to the story, she began to receive a lot of harassment and threats.

“When the more popular people started posting, that’s when it really, really changed,” Cornett said.

She says she received harassing and threatening notes under her dorm room door, causing her to have to move out of her dorm and take online classes for her own safety. She also began to receive distributing and threatening calls and texts when her phone number was made public online.

Cornett has engaged legal representation and now plans to take action against the ESPN star.

“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 did not offer a comment on the incident, and The Athletic reports that ESPN declined to make a statement.

When I found myself in Louisville for a work trip, I was determined to take the golden opportunity to squeeze in some bourbon-fueled exploration while I was there. The Evan Williams Experience was just a short walk from my downtown hotel, and for just $20, I decided to give it a shot. I expected a decent tasting and tour, but I didn’t expect to walk away with a new go-to bourbon. I definitely didn’t expect my top choice to be the cheapest in the lineup either.

The tour guide, Grace, led my group into an immersive experience consisting of floor to ceiling screens that gave me the opportunity to learn about Kentucky’s first licensed distiller, Evan Williams.

As I journeyed back into bourbon’s history, the experience made me feel like I was stepping back in time. I had the chance to learn about how bourbon was made in the late 1700s versus how it’s made today.

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Most of the Evan Williams portfolio is produced offsite, but the Square 6 line is made in an artisanal distillery located within the building. I saw firsthand where it’s created and got to sample 125 proof new make spirit before it went into the barrel. The line is named after the plot of land where Evan Williams built the first commercial distillery in Kentucky in 1783. It was located on the exact same block where the Evan Williams Experience is today.

Although the tasting lineup varies, there were four great bourbons that were showcased on the day I visited.

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage is a smooth 86.6 proof bourbon. It’s bottled solely from one barrel that’s hand-selected by master distillers. On the back of the bottle I saw the exact dates it was barreled and bottled, as well as the exact barrel number.

Evan Williams Master Blend is a 90-proof blend that combines Evan Williams 23-Year-Old, Evan Williams Single Barrel, Evan Williams 1783, Evan Williams Bottled-In-Bond, and Evan Williams Black. It has a sweet taste with hints of honey, citrus, and butterscotch.

Square 6 High-Rye Bourbon is the finished result of the new make I tried during the tour. The 95-proof finished product had an earthy flavor with notes of cinnamon.

Evan Williams 12-Year-Old Red Label is an extra-aged line extension of Evan Williams Black. More years in the barrel gives this 101 proof bourbon a bold flavor with hints of brown sugar, vanilla, and licorice.

I enjoyed the diversity of the ones that I tried, but my clear favorite was Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Bourbon. It was smooth and balanced, and the sweet notes of honey and vanilla really stood out to me. Judging from its long list of awards, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this was my top pick.

One thing did surprise me though. The prices weren’t revealed until the end of the tasting. I was a shocked to find that of all of the ones I tried, the one I enjoyed most happened to be the cheapest. It sold for $55 at the gift shop, but I’ve found this for less at local liquor stores. The Evan Williams Master Blend and Square 6 High-Rye Bourbon were both priced at $80 per bottle, and the Evan Williams 12 Year had a $150 price tag. This was an eye-opening experience that proved to me it’s possible to find a good, quality bourbon at a value price.

At the end of my tasting experience, there was one more special treat. I sampled the rich, velvety deliciousness of a chocolate bourbon ball. That wasn’t the last bourbon ball that I devoured on that trip, but it was the best. I later found out from general manager Ashley Cuyjet-Fetter that there was a reason I found these to be the most delectable of all the bourbon balls I tried in Louisville. They’re made with the same bourbon I had chosen as my favorite during the tasting: Single Barrel Vintage.

Related: I’ve Tried Hundreds of Whiskeys. This Tennessee Bourbon Is the Smoothest I’ve Ever Tasted

Morgan Wallen made all kinds of headlines for his behavior on the “Saturday Night Live” stage this weekend.

The country music star was the musical guest for the Saturday, March 29 episode of the comedy sketch show, airing on NBC. Wallen, 31, performed two songs from his upcoming album, “I’m The Problem,” before quickly departing the stage as the end credits rolled on NBC.

“Saturday Night Live” fans accused Wallen of being “disrespectful” for leaving while the end credits were rolling. Typically, the celebrity guest host, the musical guest and the cast and crew hang out and chat on stage while the credits roll.

Wallen said a couple of words to guest host Mikey Madison, who starred in Academy Award-winning “Anora,” before leaving the stage. He walked right past the audience toward the exits before hopping onto a private jet home. Wallen posted from his private jet, saying “get me to God’s country,” seemingly taking a shot at “SNL” and New York City.

But what did Wallen say on stage to Madison before departing from the show?

A lip reader has attempted to reveal what he said.

“Thank you all so much,” he said, lip reader Nicola Hickling told UNILAD. “I had a wonderful time.”

Madison then replied: “Chatting to you was really good.”

The lip reader also tried to decipher what Colin Jost said to someone else on stage as Wallen departed.

“You gotta remember how he is feeling,” the 42-year-old “Weekend Update” co-host said, per the lip reader.

Longtime “SNL” star Kenan Thompson, meanwhile, wasn’t happy with Wallen’s “God’s country” post.

“What are you trying to say?” he said to Entertainment Weekly. 

“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that. I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way… I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something,” Thompson added. “It’s definitely a spike in the norm. We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’ So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, hmm, I wonder what that’s about?” 

“The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say? You trying to say that we are not in God’s country? We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite.” 

Wallen, outside of his cryptic social media posts, hasn’t said much about his time on the show.