Lauren Sanchez's brother was paid $200,000 by National Enquirer for racy texts and naked selfies of Jeff Bezos
The National Enquirer's publisher reportedly paid the brother of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' mistress Lauren Sanchez $200,000 to get details of the pair's affair, including intimate texts exchanged between the two, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing people familiar with the transaction, the Journal reported that the tabloid's publisher, American Media Inc. (AMI), paid the sum to Lauren's brother, Michael Sanchez.
The latest report on the issue aligns with the conclusions reached by private investigators working for Bezos, according to the Daily Mail. The investigators reportedly found that Michael Sanchez had leaked the texts to the tabloid, however, they could not conclude who might have paid him.
In a Medium post on February 7, the Amazon CEO revealed that AMI had threatened to publish his explicit pictures if he didn't stop the investigation into how the Enquirer obtained his private texts. The tabloid had previously published racy texts between Bezos and Sanchez, prompting the former to hire private investigators to probe the leak.
Bezos and Sanchez reportedly enjoyed a secret union last month in one of his multi-million dollar properties in Manhattan around Valentine's Day.
After the National Enquirer published a story on the pair's affair and message exchange in January, they have not yet be seen in public as an official couple.
Lauren Sanchez reportedly “cuts all ties” with her brother Michael after it’s revealed she saved him from bankruptcy by giving him a job and $165K - and he thanked her by allegedly leaking news of her husband Jeff Bezos’ affair.
— The Talk (@TheTalkCBS) February 27, 2019
How would you handle a family betrayal like this? pic.twitter.com/YItSSIBsuY
The report of their affair had come days after Bezos' announcement on January 9 that he and his wife MacKenzie were separating after 26 years of marriage.
Michael Sanchez, in an interview with Vanity Fair, denied any involvement in the leak of "below-the-belt selfies."
"I had nothing to do with leak of the d**k pics. That's the important thing," Sanchez said, adding it's "likely" Lauren shared them.
Sanchez, at the time said: "I'm not saying I didn't do something. Until I go under oath, what I can tell you now is that ever since April 20, when I met Jeff, my only goal has been to protect Jeff and Lauren."
