Report: Jeff Bezos' Salacious Texts Were Leaked by Mistress' Brother The 2019 texts revealed an ongoing affair between the billionaire and his now-girlfriend Lauren Sanchez.
By Emily Rella Edited by Jessica Thomas
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The highly unsettling and borderline disturbing texts that nearly broke the internet in the wake of the Jeff Bezos cheating scandal apparently came at an exceptionally high cost.
A new report by the Wall Street Journal claims that the infamous texts between the Amazon founder and then-mistress, now-girlfriend Lauren Sanchez were in fact leaked to the National Enquirer by Sanchez' brother Michael Sanchez for $200,000.
The salacious texts and sexual photos between the two were leaked in 2019 and ultimately led to Bezos' divorce from former wife MacKenzie Scott.
The WSJ's report claims that Michael Sanchez sold the photos to American Media LLC (The Enquirer's parent company), and that he had previously served as a source for the magazine through his work in television media as a talent agent.
The report also states that the media company was struggling with debt when Sanchez was paid off, a deal that required the money be given upfront in the event that a story did not eventually run.
The news comes following Bezos' insistent claims earlier this year that the Saudi Arabian government somehow hacked his phone and was behind the leak of the 2019 texts
The WSJ did not specify exactly how Michael Sanchez obtained the text messages and images in the first place, but a report earlier this year from the New York Post says that Lauren Sanchez would often forward texts from Bezos to her brother in what was described as an "unusual" relationship between siblings.
There's long been speculation that Michael Sanchez was behind the leak, leading him to file a defamation lawsuit against Bezos and his security officer Gavin de Becker in February 2020.
The texts were originally leaked in a January 2019 cover story by the Enquirer, which ranged in tone from "I am in love with you" to the still-puzzling "I love you, alive girl."
Bezos has not yet publicly responded to the new report.
As of Thursday afternoon, the former Amazon CEO was worth an estimated $198.4 billion.
Related: Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Go on a Romantic Trip After Blue Origin's Historic Flight
