The celebrity doctor Peter Attia is stepping down as a contributor to CBS News amid growing scrutiny on his email exchanges with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Attia, best known for his social media content about longevity science, told CBS he would resign from the position effective immediately, and the news division’s booking department informed CBS News staff Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In a statement, a spokesman for Attia said his “contributor role was newly established and had not yet meaningfully begun.”
“As such,” the spokesman added, “he stepped back to ensure his involvement didn’t become a distraction from the important work being done at CBS. He wishes the network and its leadership well and has no further comment at this time.”
Attia’s name appears frequently in a cache of Epstein files released by the Justice Department earlier this month. In the 2010s, according to the files, the two men traded jokes, arranged times to meet and chatted about the late financier’s health.
Attia has not been accused of any crimes.
In a message in February 2016, Attia made a crude joke that female genitalia was “low carb.”
In a lengthy post on X on Feb. 2, Attia insisted that his “interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.”
“I was not involved in any criminal activity,” Attia said in the post, adding that he was “never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.”
“I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it,” Attia wrote.
Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 on a child prostitution charge, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Attia is the author of the best-selling book “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” and host of the popular podcast “The Peter Attia Drive.” He is a leading champion of longevity science, a medical philosophy centered on ways to extend one’s life span.
He was part of a group of contributors recruited in January by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who was hired by Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison to “invigorate” the network news division.
Weiss’ stable of contributors also includes historian Niall Ferguson and wellness influencer Andrew Huberman.
