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 someone 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 tune in per episode. So, anyone would wonder why one of Ohio State’s most powerful public employees keeps 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.

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. With state agencies scrambling to claw back the unspent grant money and the university investigating the misuse of public funds, a decorated Navy career ended in a textbook conflict of interest.