‘I'm not Jeffrey Epstein’: Florida man mistaken for dead financier reacts after viral lookalike clip
SOUTH FLORIDA, FLORIDA: A Florida man who looks exactly like late Jeffrey Epstein has responded to the world, “I’m not Jeffrey Epstein,” after a video of him driving went viral.
After being filmed on the highway, the man known as "Palm Beach Pete" is clearing up the confusion, saying, “This whole thing is phenomenal.”
Palm Beach Pete addresses viral video
The man in the video is actually a former D1 tennis player and a fashion businessman who goes by "Palm Beach Pete."
He filmed a response video while driving to address the controversy and explain that he had no idea he was being filmed.
“Hey everybody, this is Palm Beach Pete,” he said while driving. “And my video went viral because some dude randomly filmed me while I was driving on I-95, unbeknownst to me. And the next thing I know, I’m a viral sensation."
When asked if he was the real Jeffrey Epstein, he replied, “I’m not Jeffrey Epstein. I’m Palm Beach Pete.”
Podcast appearance reveals history of mistaken identity
Pete later appeared on 'The Nicky Gordo Show' podcast to talk about the controversy.
He told the host, "Pete is doing just great. This whole thing is a phenomenal."
He explained that he was just "minding my own business. Driving down to play some tennis" when the video was taken.
He stated, "I was out at a restaurant, really nice restaurant with my girlfriend, and she says to me, 'Those people at the table over there, they're talking about you.' So I went over to their table. I said, 'You guys talking about me?' They said, 'Are you the guy that went viral on the uh internet?' I said, yep, that's me."
Pete admitted that this isn't the first time people have noticed the resemblance.
He remembered living in New York when the news about Epstein first broke years ago and the attention it brought him.
He said, “When Epstein first got arrested and he was on the cover of the uh New York Post and I'm living in the city and people are circling around me and I know they're talking about me cuz I know I kind of look like the guy."
The viral video on the highway
The drama started when a driver spotted a man in a convertible with a backwards hat driving down a Florida highway.
The person filming shouted, “Epstein is alive! Epstein is alive!” and posted the clip online last Friday.
The video quickly got hundreds of millions of views, and people all over the internet began to wonder if the man in the car was actually the infamous figure who died in 2019.
This background footage is what sparked the global confusion, leading to Pete's eventual response to the "knucklehead" who filmed him without his knowledge.
