CBS has pulled Peter Attia’s “60 Minutes” show from its airwaves after his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein came to light.
Attiah, a recent addition to CBS News’ contributor list, first appeared in an interview segment with correspondent Norah O’Donnell in October. According to the Guardian’s Jeremy Barr, Variety and the Independent, the interview will no longer be rebroadcast as part of Sunday’s Super Bowl backstory.
Attia reportedly appeared more than 1,700 times in the latest batch of Epstein files released on Friday, January 30, according to Variety, the New York Times and other news outlets. Epstein’s files include vulgar exchanges about female genitalia between Attia and the convicted sex offender, as well as emails suggesting the self-styled longevity expert may have been with Epstein while his wife was hospitalized with their son after a near-fatal incident. Other emails suggest doctors discussed longevity with investors.
USA TODAY has reached out to CBS and Attia’s representatives for comment.
In a lengthy apology for X, referring to his interactions with Epstein, Attia said he was “not involved in any criminal activity” and had nothing to do with the convicted predator’s “sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone” and that he met Epstein, who at the time was “widely known in academic and philanthropic circles as a science funder,” in 2014 through “a prominent female medical leader” while I was raising funds for scientific research.
Attia added that the two met seven or eight times at Epstein’s New York City home to discuss research and networking. Still, he said: “I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where embarrassing, tasteless and inexcusable emails were published. That was my responsibility.”
Peter Attia and Epstein emails
In a particularly damning email to a convicted sex offender in 2016, Attia joked that female genitals are “certainly low in carbohydrates, but we’re still waiting for results on gluten content.”
Other emails describe an appointment between Attia and an unknown colleague on July 13, 2017, and emails between Epstein and his longtime assistant and planner Leslie Groff confirm a meeting with Attia that same afternoon.
This date would have been around the time of the incident that the wellness coach wrote about in his 2022 book, Outlive, in which he chastises himself for not being by his wife and son’s side after their one-month-old baby suddenly stopped breathing.
“Actually, I was out of control. I wasn’t just some garden-variety road freak either. A few months ago, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, at 5:45 to be exact, I received a call from my wife Jill. She was in the ambulance with our young son… en route to the hospital,” Attia wrote. “For some reason, he suddenly stopped breathing and lost consciousness. His eyes were completely rolled back into their sockets, he was lifeless and pale, and there was no heartbeat.”
His son soon started breathing, but was still detained in the hospital for four days, all the while his wife “begged him to go home. I called every day to talk to the doctor and discuss the daily test results, but I remained in New York because I was busy with important work.”
He added: “I am sickened by my actions. I can’t believe I did that to my family. I can’t believe what a blind, selfish, watched husband and father I was.”
Contributor: Pamela Avila, USA TODAY
