NEW YORK — New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers denied he implied comic Jimmy Kimmel was a pedophile and condemned those who do, but he stopped short of apologizing for his role in escalating their burgeoning feud.

Rodgers returned to ESPN's “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday for his weekly appearance and addressed comments he made the week before that appeared to suggest Kimmel's name might appear on a list of associates of Jeffrey Epstein , a millionaire accused of sex trafficking involving underage victims before he died by suicide.

“Any type of name calling is ridiculous and I'm not calling him (a pedophile), and neither should you,” Rodgers said on the show Tuesday.

The feud between ABC's late-night star and Rodgers, who regularly appears on the daily ESPN show, has proven embarrassing for The Walt Disney Co., the parent company to both television networks.

Rodgers criticized Mike Foss, an ESPN executive who oversees McAfee's show, for saying that Rodgers had made “a dumb and factually inaccurate joke” about Kimmel.

“Mike, you’re not helping,” Rodgers said. "You’re not helping because I just read earlier exactly what I said. This is the game plan of the media and this is what they do: They try to cancel, you know, and it’s not just me.”

Rodgers last week said a lot of people, “including Jimmy Kimmel,” are really hoping that a list of Epstein's associates doesn't come out publicly. Kimmel, who has denied any association with Epstein, threatened Rodgers with a lawsuit for the comment and said the NFL star was putting his family in danger.

Rodgers suggested that people were reading too much into what he said, that he was not stupid enough to accuse Kimmel of being a pedophile.

Kimmel made the first appearance of the year Monday on his late-night show and laced into Rodgers. He said he would accept an apology from Rodgers but didn't expect one.

“A decent person would apologize,” Kimmel said. “But he probably won't.”

Kimmel called Rodgers “hamster-brained” and said that he got two A’s on his report card — “they’re both in the name Aaron.”

“It might be time to revisit that concussion profile, Aaron,” Kimmel said.

Before addressing his specific comments, Rodgers had a lengthy preamble about his grudges against Kimmel, including jokes the comic has made about the quarterback's anti-COVID-19 vaccination comments.

Even after that, he said he didn't care what Kimmel said about him, “but as long as he understands what I actually said and that I'm not accusing him of being on a list ... I'm all for moving forward.”

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LOS ANGELES — Lisa Bonet has filed for divorce from Jason Momoa 18 years after the two actors became a couple.

The 56-year-old Bonet, whose legal name is Lilakoi Moon, filed documents to end her marriage to the 44-year-old Momoa in Los Angeles County court on Monday. The filing comes nearly two years after they announced their separation .

The petition cites irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. The filing says neither person should get financial support and that the two have agreed on how to split their assets. The documents say they should have joint custody of their 16-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son.

Momoa is best known for his roles in the “Aquaman" movies and on "Game of Thrones." Bonet was a star of “The Cosby Show,” its spinoff “A Different World,” and the films “High Fidelity” and “Enemy of the State.”

The two met and started dating in 2005, but did not legally marry until 2017. Their divorce documents gives their separation date as October 2020, more than a year before their announcement. It will be at least six months before a judge declares them divorced.

It was the first marriage for Momoa and the second for Bonet, who was previously married to musician Lenny Kravitz and has another daughter, actor Zoë Kravitz, with him.

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LONDON — Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor died from “natural causes” in July, a coroner said Tuesday.

London's Metropolitan Police had said the singer's death was not considered suspicious after she was found unresponsive at a home in southeast London on July 26. O'Connor was 56.

The Southwark Coroner's Court confirmed that O'Connor died of natural causes, which means circumstances when an illness or condition is not linked to external forces. It did not provide details.

The singer, who began her career performing on the streets of Dublin, rose to worldwide fame with her cover of Prince's ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” released in 1990.

O’Connor was public about her mental illness and was hospitalized after her teenage son, Shane, died by suicide in 2022.

A lifelong non-conformist, O'Connor was known for her outspoken political and cultural stances and fierce criticism of the Roman Catholic Church, long before allegations of sexual abuse in the clergy were widely reported.

Thousands of fans lined the streets of Bray, the Irish town she had called home, during a funeral procession in August. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar attended, along with U2's Bono.

From combined wire services