This just in: CBS News contributor Dr. Peter Attia has called it quits at the network.
His resignation comes after the new documents release exposed his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Dr. Peter Attia is a celebrity doctor who was originally hired by CBS News’ new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as a longevity expert.
In total, Attia’s name appears in the Epstein files over one-thousand times.
The email drop revealed that he regularly communicated with Epstein in the 2010s.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
Attia’s name appears some 1,700 times in the 3 million Epstein documents released on Jan. 30. The bulk of the emails between Attia and Epstein are from the mid-2010s — after Epstein was convicted (in 2008) on a Florida charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under 18, but before a 2018 Miami Herald exposé on a host of allegations against Epstein and his second arrest in 2019.
The health and longevity researcher and author is one of many people with connections to Hollywood and the media business who were found to have known Epstein.
Now, of course, being mentioned in the Epstein files is no evidence of wrongdoing.
However, some of the emails between Attia and Epstein were disturbing, to say the least.
In one example of email correspondence with Epstein, Attia made a sick ‘joke’ about a certain female body part being “low carb” and wrote: “The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…“
Take a look:
🚨 JUST IN: CBS News contributor Dr. Peter Attia has RESIGNED from the network after his ties to Jeffrey Epstein were exposed by the files, per Hollywood Reporter
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 23, 2026
The house of cards is crashing down.
The Trump DOJ's files release has exposed a LOT of people.
H/t @AZ_Intel_ pic.twitter.com/8qlCNfgZFu
Here’s a closer look at that email:
In light of everything we know about Epstein, that’s not just nasty — it’s incredibly concerning.
What’s even more troubling is the fact that Dr. Attia once refused to come home to see his infant son who was in cardiac arrest because he was too busy “working” and making plans to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein.
As his baby son lay in ICU, Peter Attia told his wife that he was too busy with “important work” in NYC to fly home to see him.
— Dave Buchanan (@Dave_Longevity) February 2, 2026
He was with Jeffery Epstein. pic.twitter.com/lcfBMcaa5z
The New York Post confirmed:
In his book, “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity,” Attia, 52, recounted the harrowing moment he received a call from his wife, Jill, telling him that his son, Ayrton, had suddenly stopped breathing on the evening of July 11, 2017.
“I stayed in New York, busy with my ‘important’ work,” he admitted in the book. “Ayrton’s cardiac arrest happened on a Tuesday, but I did not come home to San Diego until Friday of the following week. Ten days later.”
What Attia failed to mention, however, was that during this harrowing time, he was making plans to meet up with Epstein, the disgraced New York financier who was already embroiled at the time with allegations of trafficking minors, according to newly released emails between the two.
Attia confessed to feeling guilty about his decision, describing himself as a “blind, selfish, checked-out husband and father” who would likely never forgive himself for ignoring his family.
“Even today, just thinking about what happened, I feel nauseous about my behavior,” he wrote. “I can’t believe I did that to my family.”
Just a day after speaking with his wife about their ailing son, Attia made plans to meet with Epstein on July 13 — even offering to change his own schedule to make the convicted sex offender’s day easier.
“Can you do before 10 am? tomrow,” Epstein wrote.
“Sure,” Attia responded. “I can come earlier, also, if you have a hard stop at 10. Let me know.”
It remains unclear if Attia and Epstein actually met on July 13, 2017, or what they did together if so.
Absolutely horrible.
Can you imagine abandoning your baby boy when he needs you most because you need to do more “important” things like meeting with a disgraced billionaire pedophile?
However, Attia has denied doing anything wrong with regards to Epstein.
NBC News shared his resignation statement:
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.
Attia also defended himself in a lengthy post on X, where he stated that was never involved in any criminal activity and never visited the island.
You can read the full thing here:
The following email is what I sent my team last night. I sent a similar version to my patients, also.
— Peter Attia (@PeterAttiaMD) February 2, 2026
***
You’ve put your trust, your credibility, and your hard work into what we have built together, and I take that responsibility seriously. You deserve a complete and honest…
The following email is what I sent my team last night. I sent a similar version to my patients, also.
***
You’ve put your trust, your credibility, and your hard work into what we have built together, and I take that responsibility seriously. You deserve a complete and honest account of what did and did not happen. I apologize that I did not get this out sooner, but I want to be thorough.
The purpose of the DOJ releasing these documents is clear: to identify individuals who participated in criminal activity, enabled it, or witnessed it. I am not in any of those categories, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
To be clear:
1. I was not involved in any criminal activity.
2. My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.
3. I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.
That said, 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.
***
I want to start by directly addressing the email thread that I’ve been asked about the most.
In June 2015, I sent Epstein an email with the subject line “Got a fresh shipment.” The email contained a photograph of bottles of metformin, a medication I had just received from the pharmacy for my own use. The subject line referred to the picture of the bottles of medication.
He replied with the words “me too” and attached a photograph of an adult woman. I responded with crude, tasteless banter. Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it. I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful.
At that point in my career, I had little exposure to prominent people, and that level of access was novel to me. Everything about him seemed excessive and exclusive, including the fact that he lived in the largest home in all of Manhattan, owned a Boeing 727, and hosted parties with the most powerful and prominent leaders in business and politics. I treated that access as something to be quiet about rather than discussed freely with others. One line in that exchange, about his life being outrageous and me not being able to tell anyone, is being interpreted as awareness of wrongdoing. That is not how I meant it at all. What I was referring to, poorly and flippantly, was the discretion commanded by those social and professional circles–the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings. What I wrote in that email reads terribly, and I own that.
***
I met Epstein in 2014 through a prominent female healthcare leader while I was raising funds for scientific research. At that time, he was widely known in academic and philanthropic circles as a funder of science and moved openly among credible institutions and public figures.
Between summer 2014 and spring 2019, I met with him on approximately seven or eight occasions at his New York City home, regarding research studies and to meet others he introduced me to. I never visited his island or ranch, and I never flew on any of his planes. When I was at his home, it was either meeting with him directly, meeting with small groups of scientists, doctors, or business leaders, and once at a dinner in 2015 with a number of guests including prominent heads of state. In retrospect, the presence and credibility of such venerable people in different orbits led me to make assumptions about him that clouded my judgment in ways it shouldn’t have.
I was not his doctor, though several times I answered general medical questions and recommended other providers to him.
Shortly after we met, I asked him directly about his 2008 conviction. He characterized it as prostitution-related charges. In 2018, I came to learn this was grossly minimized (more on this below). I was incredibly naïve to believe him. I mistook his social acceptance in the eyes of the credible people I saw him with for acceptability, and that was a serious error in my judgment. To be clear, I never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in his presence.
***
In November 2018 I read the Miami Herald investigative article. I was repulsed by what I learned. Nauseated. It marked a clear and irreversible line between what I knew before and what I understood afterward.
At that point, I told him directly he needed to accept responsibility for what he did.
Hoping to provide the victims from the Herald piece with support, I contacted a residential trauma facility to understand what funding comprehensive care for many victims would require. (Those communications were between me and the facility and were therefore not part of the document release.) I spoke with him and shared that information and insisted that he fund their care, beginning with residential treatment and followed by lifelong therapy.
In hindsight, even attempting to facilitate accountability was a mistake and once again reflected just how naïve I was at the time. Once the full scope of his actions was clear, disengagement should have been the only appropriate response. My intent does not change that, and I regret not drawing that boundary immediately.
***
Nothing in this letter is meant to minimize the harm suffered by the young women Epstein abused. Their trauma is permanent.
I am not asking for a pass from you. I am not asking anyone to ignore the emails or pretend they aren’t ugly. They simply are.
The man I am today, roughly ten years later, would not write them and would not associate with Epstein at all. Whatever growth I’ve had over the past decade does not erase the emails I wrote then.
I recognize that my actions and words have consequences for the people I care deeply about, including all of you. I regret the cost this has placed on you, and I take responsibility for it.
I won’t ask anyone to defend me or explain this on my behalf. If you have questions or concerns, I’ll address them directly with you, my team.
I wonder if CBS News will dare to address all this…
Your thoughts?
