If you’re a sitting university president pulling in $1.5 million a year, going too far can cost everything. Being Ohio State’s 17th president was only a boost to Ted Carter’s resume, as he was already a decorated figure. He came from 38 years in the U.S. Navy as a three-star admiral. But little did he expect that he would meet a local podcaster who would turn his life upside down. 

When Krisanthe Vlachos crossed Ted Carter’s path, he blew up a high-profile job and put a 45-year marriage on the line. Ohio State later explained his resignation sprang from an “inappropriate relationship” with someone seeking public resources. While the school didn’t officially name her, everyone already knew that person in the story was Vlachos, a military-focused podcaster with a small but targeted platform.

With his resignation, Ted Carter is also relieved of his duties as one of the nine NCAA Board of Governors voting members for Ohio State. So how did this curious relationship begin in the first place, and how did it spiral from a professional connection into a full-blown institutional problem?

Ted Carter and Vlachos first crossed paths in March 2024, just months after he took office. According to a now-deleted podcast episode, the meeting happened at a Veterans in Energy Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. It was a setting that fit both their lanes, as Carter had long ties to veteran affairs and Vlachos built her content around the same community. And from there, things ramped up.

The ex-Ohio State president, Ted Carter, became a regular on Vlachos’ podcast, appearing in nine of 14 videos posted in 2025 alone. But the eyebrow-raising part here is that the podcast itself wasn’t exactly a mega platform, as only a few hundred viewers tuned in per episode. So, anyone would wonder why one of Ohio State’s most powerful public employees kept appearing on the show.

The relationship started overlapping with institutional resources. In January 2025, Vlachos’ podcast co-sponsored a veterans’ performance event at Ohio State. A few months later, the roles appeared to flip as the university reportedly became a sponsor for her “Gaff-N-Go Rodeo” event in Virginia.

The situation escalated beyond event sponsorships into state ethics territory. That’s because Carter directly facilitated a $60,000 JobsOhio grant for Vlachos’s podcast while she secured a $94,000 production contract with university-owned WOSU Public Media. Vlachos even registered her private LLC at an on-campus WOSU address, crossing the line from personal favor to severe institutional liability.

It must be remembered that Ted Carter has been married to Lynda Carter (née Kohlhepp) for over 45 years. The couple met in 1979 at a social event related to a hockey game at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Ted was a midshipman and Lynda was a student at the University of Maryland. They married in 1982, shortly after their respective graduations. In 2017, they celebrated their 35th anniversary by renewing their wedding vows at the Naval Academy Chapel.

Lynda Carter has been described as her husband’s “biggest support system” through his 38-year Navy career and subsequent roles in higher education. During their marriage, the family relocated more than 20 times, including assignments in Japan and multiple stints in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2019, Lynda received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Secretary of the Navy for her years of dedication to military organizations and community programs.

Lynda has not yet publicly commented on the scandal. People in the football community have called for privacy and respect for Lynda, highlighting her decades of loyalty and service.

Ted Carter’s inappropriate relationship sightings

Multiple sources told The Dispatch that Ted Carter and Vlachos were seen engaging in public displays of affection at two separate high-profile events. The first came on November 17, 2025, at a dinner at Butcher & Rose in downtown Columbus. It was a pre-event gathering with Ohio State cabinet members, Google executives, and leaders from Student Veterans of America. That part that stands out is that Vlachos wasn’t originally on the guest list. Carter reportedly asked for her inclusion two weeks prior and even offered to pay for her attendance. 

Then came January’s Student Veterans of America “NatCon” conference in Colorado Springs. Ted Carter allegedly pushed for Vlachos to introduce him, a role typically reserved for a student veteran. She did, and in a LinkedIn post that has since been deleted, she called him her “dear friend and mentor.”

Multiple attendees reported seeing the two together throughout the conference, again showing public affection. Some assumed they were married, but some were simply confused, especially since Ted Carter’s wife of over four decades, Lynda, wasn’t present. Sources described his behavior as “cavalier” and “weirdly brazen.”

However, Ted Carter’s sudden March 2026 resignation wasn’t just about public affection, as he explicitly admitted to granting inappropriate institutional access to Ohio State leadership to support her private business. Carter allegedly used his position to introduce Vlachos to influential leaders at organizations like JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Veterans Services to pitch an AI-powered app for veterans.

Carter resigned just over two years into his tenure, forfeiting a potential $250,000 bonus. Following the scandal, all episodes of “The Callout Podcast” and related social media accounts were removed from the internet. With state agencies scrambling to claw back the unspent grant money and the university investigating the misuse of public funds, a decorated career ended in a textbook case of error in judgement.