ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Jeff Bezos Claims That National Enquirer Is Blackmailing Him With Nudes

Jeff Bezos Claims That National Enquirer Is Blackmailing Him With Nudes

The Richest Man in the World, The President of the United States, and a newspaper. What could possibly go wrong?

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Amazon CEO and World's Richest Man Jeff Bezos has claimed on his personal blog that the National Enquirer, an American tabloid, is threatening to publish naked photographs of him as well as revealing photos of Lauren Sanchez, a news anchor and journalist that Bezos was having an affair with.

In the bizarre blog post, Bezos alleges that the paper is blackmailing and extorting him into making a statement regarding the National Enquirer's parent company American Media Inc. (AMI) and its investigation into his personal life.

He claims AMI expects him to admit that the company isn't and has never been 'politically motivated or influenced by political forces'.

The National Enquirer revealed the details of Bezos' affair last month, after which his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, left him.

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos.
PA

So why would the company want to get Bezos to say there were 'political forces' at play? Simply put, it's The Donald.

AMI is currently involved in a controversy that involves US President Donald Trump and a practice called 'catch and kill'. This is where a news organisation buys a story with exclusivity, then deliberately doesn't publish it to make sure that it never actually becomes news.

That means that the subject of the story - in this instance, Donnie Trump - is shielded from any potential scandal.

However, it was revealed in court that AMI used 'catch and kill' to stop a story regarding an alleged affair involving Donald Trump in the lead-up to his election as POTUS by forking over $150,000 for exclusive rights.

Jeff Bezos.
PA

AMI CEO David Pecker - a friend of Trump's - was allegedly rewarded with a trip to the White House for his efforts.

So, according to the blog post - titled 'No Thank You, Mr Pecker' - the photos in question consist of a 'full-length body selfie of Mr. Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks', as well as a 'naked selfie in a bathroom... wearing nothing but a white towel'. There's more, of course.

Bezos has now released what he claims to be an email from AMI's deputy legal counsel Jon Fine. It reads:

Here are our proposed terms:

Bezos' blog post continued: "Well, that [the email] got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped. Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there's a much more important matter involved here.

"If in my position I can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?"

He added: "In the AMI letters I'm making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: they will publish the personal photos unless [Bezos' long-term security chief] Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press.

"Be assured, no real journalists ever propose anything like what is happening here... Nothing I might write here could tell the National Enquirer story as eloquently as their own words below."

"These communications cement AMI's long-earned reputation for weaponising journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism.

"Of course I don't want personal photos published, but I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favours, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."

LADbible has reached out to Amazon and AMI for comment.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, US News, Weird, Politics