In the latest update to the saga dating back to January 2019, a new report alleges that the person behind the leaked nude photos sent between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, was Sanchez’s brother.
Michael Sanchez reportedly received $200,000 for providing the intimates texts and pictures to the National Enquirer and giving the tabloid’s publisher exclusive rights, according to The New York Times. The story goes on to indicate that Lauren Sanchez, a former TV news anchor, actually provided her brother with the content.
The National Enquirer broke the news of the relationship between Sanchez and Bezos in January 2019, hours after the Amazon CEO announced he and his wife, Mackenzie, were planning on getting a divorce. The investigation by Bezos and his security team to discover who’s behind the leak has been ongoing, and Sanchez was an early suspect — although he repeatedly denied the allegations in exchanges with Business Insider.
However, the leak investigation also dug up an unexpected plot twist. Last week, The Guardian reported that Bezos’ phone had allegedly been hacked back in May 2018 — eight months before the National Enquirer story — likely via a file sent by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on WhatsApp. The Guardian report, backed by UN investigators, does not indicate Saudi Arabia is responsible for leaking the personal messages sent between Sanchez and Bezos, although Bezos previously floated the idea of a link to the Saudi government before.
Check out the complete timeline of events, tracing back to when Jeff Bezos first announced he was getting a divorce in January 2019:
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