It may be that falling madly in love has changed Jeff Bezos’ perspective on things, including when it comes to what he’ll put up with from his new girlfriend, her brother and being at the center of a tabloid scandal and alleged extortion scheme.
The world’s richest man has long been famous for guarding his privacy, according to the Washington Post. But all that changed after the Amazon CEO’s intimate text messages with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez, as well as selfies of his private parts, were leaked to the National Enquirer.
The supermarket tabloid published excerpts from the text messages in January, documenting Bezos’ affair with Sanchez and prompting Bezos to end his 25-year marriage. Bezos, whose ownership of the Washington Post has made him one of President Trump’s top media enemies, subsequently alleged in a blog post that the Enquirer threatened to publish the nude selfies unless he stopped saying that the leaks were politically motivated by pro-Trump forces.
Now, it turns out that Sanchez and her Hollywood talent agent brother Michael Sanchez may be responsible for at least some of the leaks that violated the multibillionaire’s famous privacy.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that an internal investigation ordered by Bezos confirmed that Michael Sanchez, an avowed Trump supporter, leaked the intimate text messages.
In a new series of interviews with Vanity Fair writer Gabriel Sherman, Michael Sanchez “carefully parsed” his involvement in the scandal. He wouldn’t deny leaking the text messages to the Enquirer — “I’m not saying I didn’t do something,” Sherman reported.
But Michael Sanchez adamantly denied having anything to do with leaking the “below-the-belt selfies.”
“I had nothing to do with leak of the (penis) pics,” Michael Sanchez told Sherman. “That’s the important thing,”
Then in a stunning disclosure, Michael Sanchez suggested his sister may have been careless in sharing the intimate photos with her girlfriends and maybe that is how they ended up in the hands of the Enquirer.
“There are, like, 20 (penis) pics,” Michael Sanchez said. “Lauren likely shared them with multiple girlfriends.”
Michael Sanchez insisted his sister was not being “malicious.” Instead, Lauren Sanchez was sharing intimate photos of her famously guarded boyfriend as an expression of her love, he explained.
“When she’s in love, she got a kick out of sharing them,” Michael Sanchez told Sherman — adding that his sister even tried showing one of the selfies to him. Michael Sanchez said, “One time she tried to show me one and I was like, ‘What the (expletive) is wrong with you? I don’t want to see that!’”
Maybe just as stunning, Michael Sanchez indicated to Sherman that Bezos has not had second thoughts about attaching himself to Lauren Sanchez, even though she may have exercised a lack of discretion by giving others a peek at his private parts.
Page Six, meanwhile, offered a different take on how Bezos is dealing with learning that the Sanchez siblings may not be too careful with his secrets. The column reported this week that Bezos and Lauren Sanchez may be headed to “Splitsville” after Michael Sanchez was named as the chief suspect in leaking the text messages. Page Six added that the couple haven’t seen each other in nearly 40 days.
Reports also have addressed Michael Sanchez’s friendly relationships with Tump associates Roger Stone and Carter Page and with American Media Inc., the parent company for the Enquirer.
But Michael Sanchez told Vanity Fair his sister and Bezos continue to talk frequently and that the scandal has “brought them closer together.”
Another source close to Bezos and Sanchez told Page Six in January that the couple were not going to let the scandal destroy their love. In fact, Bezos planned to publicly debut his romance with Sanchez by bringing her to the Academy Awards on Feb 24, the source said. With his Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime, Bezos has become an increasingly powerful figure in Hollywood.
“Expect to see Lauren joining Jeff (at the Oscars),” the source told Page Six. “They are an item and very much in love.”
However, this Page Six report came out before Michael Sanchez’s name emerged as the main suspect in the text messages leak.
In talking to Vanity Fair, Michael Sanchez insisted that he “loves” Bezos and is protective of the billionaire’s relationship with his sister. Moreover, Michael Sanchez explained how he became an unofficial crisis PR advisor to the couple after they became concerned that their affair would be discovered.
“They were talking marriage,” Michael Sanchez told Sherman. “The three of us had discussed before that, at some point, this was going to be a scandal. My advice was, let’s get to the other side. Our analogy was always that they were landing a 747. I told them, ‘You’re both pilots and you’ve never landed a 747, but that’s what we’re trying to do here.’”
Michael Sanchez said the truth eventually will come out about his motivations and his belief in “Jeff and Lauren’s love.”
“It’s a legendary romance that will blow your mind as to just how in love they are,” Michael Sanchez said.
