Viral sensation “Palm Beach Pete” comes clean, saying that he used to be at parties with Jeffrey Epstein

Palm Beach Pete says he is not changing a thing.

In a new TMZ interview with Harvey Levin, the Florida man who has gone wildly viral for looking like Jeffrey Epstein said he has no plans to cut his hair, change his style, or hide from the attention. He insists he is just a regular guy who happens to resemble one of the most infamous men in modern American scandal.

But the most surprising part of the interview was not the hairstyle talk.

It was Pete casually admitting that, years ago, he did in fact see Epstein at a couple of parties. He did not describe some close friendship or secret relationship. In fact, he went out of his way to say he never really interacted with him. Still, that one detail gave the whole interview a darker edge.

A story that started as a strange internet joke suddenly became more complicated.

From Highway Clip To Viral Obsession

Speaking with TMZ, Palm Beach Pete said the whole thing exploded after a random man filmed him on Interstate 95 while driving beside his car.

Pete said the man looked at him and seemed to realize instantly that he had stumbled onto internet gold. According to Pete, the guy said something like, “Look at this guy. This just fell into my lap,” then posted the clip online. From there, the video took off and, in Pete’s telling, racked up hundreds of millions of views.

That kind of sudden fame would be jarring for almost anyone.

Pete told Harvey Levin that he had gone viral before, just never on anything close to this scale. That may be true, but this round is clearly different because of who people think he resembles. Looking like a celebrity can be funny. Looking like Jeffrey Epstein comes with a much heavier shadow.

Even in the TMZ interview, you can feel Pete trying to keep the tone light while also pushing back against what the comparison means. He seems amused by the attention, but also eager to draw a bright line between his face and Epstein’s reputation.

That makes sense. A doppelgänger joke is one thing. Being mistaken for a dead sex offender tied to years of scandal is another.

He Says The Recognition Is Constant

Pete told TMZ that the attention has become impossible to miss.

He described being recognized in restaurants, approached by servers, and whispered about by younger people who knew him from the viral clips. In one story he shared with Levin, he said a group of Gen Z kids were whispering at a table, and he walked over and asked if they were talking about him. They admitted they were, and told him he was the guy who had gone viral.

He said, “That’s me.”

That answer tells you a lot about how he is handling this. He is not hiding. He is not ducking out side doors. He seems to have decided that if this circus is happening anyway, he might as well face it head-on.

Pete also told TMZ this kind of confusion is not new. He said that back when Epstein was first arrested and plastered across the New York Post, people in New York City were already double-taking around him. He said he lived in the city at the time, and people would circle around him or stare because of the resemblance.

That part is especially strange because it suggests this was a low-level problem long before the latest viral moment.

In other words, the internet did not invent the comparison. It just supercharged it.

Harvey Levin Presses On The Obvious Question

Harvey Levin asked the most direct question of the interview: why not just change his look?

If the haircut and overall styling are fueling the comparisons, why not trim it down, switch it up, and stop giving people the visual setup? Levin’s question was blunt, but fair. A lot of people watching were probably wondering the same thing.

Pete’s answer was simple.

He said he is Palm Beach Pete, a regular retired man who worked in commercial real estate, loves tennis, and is very social. He told TMZ he is not going to change his appearance because of somebody else, especially somebody he described as dead and evil. Pete added that he can hold his head high because he did nothing wrong, and then, with a little swagger, said he is basically a better-looking version of Epstein.

That line was half joke, half defiance.

And honestly, it may be the only way to survive a story like this. If he sounds too angry, people will mock him. If he sounds too wounded, the internet will only poke harder. By leaning into the absurdity while still separating himself from Epstein morally, Pete seems to be trying to reclaim control of the whole narrative.

The Most Startling Part: He Says He Saw Epstein At Parties

Then came the part that changed the temperature of the interview.

Late in the conversation, Pete told Levin that when he was living in New York, he had gone to a couple of parties where Epstein was present. He said Epstein would just be there, sitting on a couch, keeping to himself, and seeming creepy.

That is a loaded admission, even if it was brief.

Palm Beach Pete did not claim friendship. He did not say they talked. In fact, he said he never really encountered him in any meaningful way or had a conversation with him. He described Epstein more as a strange figure in the room than a person he knew. Still, hearing him say he was at parties where Epstein was present adds an eerie layer to a story that had mostly been treated like meme material.

Pete told TMZ that Epstein was mysterious at the time, and that people did not really know how he made his money or what his real story was.

That detail may be one of the most interesting things in the whole interview. It captures something unsettling about how power and mystery often work in elite social spaces. A man can seem odd, vague, even creepy, and yet still be allowed into rooms full of wealthy or connected people because nobody quite knows what to make of him, and maybe nobody wants to ask too many questions.

That is not proof of guilt by association. Not even close.

But it is a reminder that Epstein did not exist in a vacuum. He floated through scenes, parties, and social circles long before the full weight of his crimes became widely understood. Pete’s brief recollection, even though it was limited, gives that reality a very human and uncomfortable shape.

He Insists Real-Life Encounters Have Not Turned Hostile

Levin also asked whether people ever get angry face to face, especially given the conspiracy chatter online that Epstein is somehow still alive.

Pete said no. He told TMZ he has never had a bad in-person encounter, and that nobody has confronted him in a serious or hostile way. According to him, the ugly stuff mostly stays online in the comments, where people can be nastier and more reckless.

That sounds believable.

The internet tends to turn weird stories into contests over who can be the loudest or cruelest, while real life is usually more awkward and less dramatic. Pete said most people who see him in person seem to find the whole thing funny. Some ask for selfies. Some shake his hand. Some just stare for a second and then laugh.

That is bizarre, but it also feels very modern.

A man can walk into a restaurant and become a living meme before the appetizer arrives. The server knows him. The table in the corner knows him. The bartender wants a picture. Not because he did anything, but because he resembles the ghost of a national scandal.

Family, Fame, And A Joke That Will Not Die

Pete said his family is mostly taking it in stride.

When Levin asked about his kids, Pete said his daughter thinks it is funny, though he also made clear that he does not want to drag his family too deeply into the story. He said his children were already used to the resemblance becoming a topic when Epstein was first back in the headlines, so this is not entirely new territory for them.

That may be the most grounded part of the interview.

For all the internet madness, Palm Beach Pete keeps returning to the same message: he is just a man living his life. He plays tennis. He goes to restaurants. He used to work in commercial real estate. He gets mistaken for somebody horrible, but he refuses to let that rewrite who he is.

TMZ’s interview with Harvey Levin captured that tension pretty well. Pete was funny, relaxed, and occasionally cocky, but underneath it all there was also something more serious. He does not want to be swallowed by somebody else’s face.

And that may be why his admission about seeing Epstein at parties matters so much. It reminded viewers that behind the joke, there is still a real scandal, a real history, and a real reason people react so strongly to the resemblance in the first place.

Palm Beach Pete may be leaning into the absurdity, but he is also trying to keep one point crystal clear. He looks like Jeffrey Epstein.

He is not Jeffrey Epstein.