Dr. Peter Attia, who came under fire following revelations of his ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is no longer a contributor at CBS News, TheWrap has learned.
Attia informed the network he’d be resigning effective immediately, according to a source familiar with the matter. His decision ends a nearly monthlong saga in which editor-in-chief Bari Weiss battled Paramount executives to retain one of her newest contributors — despite emails showing Attia maintaining a friendly relationship with Epstein, where they discussed sexually explicit topics.
The network remained silent about Attia’s status’ for several weeks, though notably pulled a rerun of an October “60 Minutes” segment featuring Attia from an episode earlier this month.
TheWrap reported earlier that Weiss, a longtime critic of “cancel culture,” did not want to give in to public outcry by letting him go despite Paramount executives’ belief that Attia could no longer credibly provide expert advice. Staffers also believed Attia would quietly remain on the network’s contributor roster, according to the Guardian, even if he was never used.
The Epstein files revealed that Attia made crude jokes, offered to help Epstein live longer “for the ladies,” and gushed about Epstein’s “outrageous” lifestyle.
In one email, Attia wrote that the “worst part about being your friend is that the life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…” In 2016 email, Attia joked about diet with Epstein by saying: “P—y is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten, though.”
Attia’s name appears more than 1,700 times in the trove of 3 million emails, including many personal email exchanges with Epstein. Most of them came before Epstein’s actions were brought to light through a 2018 Miami Herald series, though after a 2008 conviction on soliciting prostitution from a minor.
A physician and founder of Outlive, Attia has carved out a niche speaking on wellness and longevity. His YouTube channel has over one million subscribers and his Instagram has 1.6 million followers, though he has not posted on either platform since the files came to light.
Attia told his team and patients that he regretted his association with Epstein and acknowledged the now-public emails were “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.”
“I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it,” he wrote on X.
The emails were released days after Weiss touted Attia to staffers during a CBS News all-hands meeting as one of more than a dozen new contributors. The contributors, she said, were part of an effort to “widen the aperture of the stories we tell and the voices we hear from and the people we listen to.”
CBS News also promoted Attia in a social media post as one of the “sharpest minds on the topics that matter most.”
Weiss’ ambitions to change the network have run into snags in recent months after a series of on-air missteps by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil , a round of voluntary buyouts that saw at least 11 staffers leave “Evening News” and Anderson Cooper’s decision last week to leave “60 Minutes” after this season. The network is expected to face a new round of layoffs in the coming weeks.
