Jeff Bezos sued by girlfriend Lauren Sanchez's brother, accused of defaming Amazon chief by leaking 'graphic photographs'

The brother of Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend has filed a lawsuit accusing Bezos and his security consultant of defaming him in connection with a 2019 National Enquirer story revealing Bezos’ extramarital affair The brother of Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend has filed a lawsuit accusing Bezos and his security consultant of defaming him in connection with a 2019 National Enquirer story revealing Bezos’ extramarital affair. Michael Sanchez, a Hollywood talent manager and the brother of Lauren Sanchez, said in his lawsuit, which was filed Friday in state court in Los Angeles, that Bezos and Gavin de Becker, the consultant, had falsely told journalists that he had leaked “graphic, nude photographs” of Bezos to The Enquirer. According to an October 2018 contract reviewed by The New York Times, Michael Sanchez granted American Media the right to publish and license text messages and photographs “documenting an affair between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez” in exchange for $200,000. In his blog post last year, Bezos quoted emails sent to de Becker’s lawyer by an American Media lawyer and a company executive, who wrote that “the photos obtained during our news gathering” included a nude “below-the-belt selfie.” American Media said in the emails that it would refrain from publishing the photographs if Bezos said publicly that he believed the exposé was not politically motivated. After Bezos and Lauren Sanchez “were guided in their decision to keep their relationship hidden by a psychic in New Mexico,” Sanchez’s lawyers wrote, Michael Sanchez “was instrumental in covering up first, the existence, and second, the timing of the affair.” Eventually, Michael Sanchez’s lawsuit said, he tried to “get ahead of the story,” entering into a nondisclosure agreement with American Media.