Why is RuPaul’s Drag Race mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files?
The Epstein files are a growing cache of over 33,000 pages of documents, including court records, seized devices, flight logs, and metadata
By Callum Wells
Newly released Jeffrey Epstein files have sparked a frenzy among RuPaul’s Drag Race fans after it emerged that the MTV show is named in them.
While RuPaul himself does not appear in the documents, the TV programme is, likely because someone connected to Epstein downloaded it via iTunes.
Reddit’s r/rupaulsdragrace community erupted after a post claimed that “RuPaul literally in the Epstein files”. The misleading claim came from a metadata dump, shared via Google’s PinPoint tool, that listed RuPaul’s Drag Race among several TV titles.
“To be clear, it was the show that was named. Not RuPaul. This bitch got me having a heart attack” – Reddit user in r/rupaulsdragrace community
Digging deeper, Reddit users found entries for All Stars 4 and season 10 in the iTunes-style library export.
One user summed up the confusion: “To be clear, it was the show that was named. Not RuPaul. This bitch got me having a heart attack.”
Other viewers in the same data dump included Pose, Shadowhunters, and Tales of the City. The presence of these shows suggests nothing more sinister than someone’s iTunes library being archived – not any confirmed personal link to Epstein himself.
While RuPaul’s Drag Race is mentioned 14 times in one of the exported files, there’s no indication that the iTunes account belonged to Epstein.
Epstein was a financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges.
What are the Jeffrey Epstein files?
The Epstein files are a growing cache of over 33,000 pages of documents, including court records, seized devices, flight logs, and metadata, made public by the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
While the documents provide details on Epstein’s network and activities, the Department of Justice has stated that there is no credible evidence of a client list that prosecutes major names for Epstein’s trafficking operation, and no verified evidence in the released files links high-profile celebrities to his trafficking operation.
This week, Attitude reported on how the viral email from Epstein’s brother Mark, referencing Donald Trump “blowing Bubba”, is believed not to refer to Bill Clinton.
The message referred to photos of Trump in the act, asking Epstein to check with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, on whether Russian president Vladimir Putin had access to them.
Mark told The Advocate that the email was part of a private, inside-joke exchange between brothers and was never meant for public release or to be taken seriously.