It was a whirlwind of news on Jan. 9 when Amazon founder and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie jointly announced they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. Then a few hours later it was reported that the tycoon has been involved in a months-long relationship with former LA TV news anchor Lauren Sanchez. The 49-year-old beauty is herself estranged from wealthy, high-profile Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell. In fact, the two former couples were actually close friends for years and the fact that Jeff and Lauren had began dating came as a total stunner to close pals.
“A lot of people were shocked and had no idea Lauren was seeing Jeff. They kept it extremely close. Nobody had any idea. Lauren never posts photos with her husband on her social media. Lauren made her Instagram private very recently. Lauren is very active on social media, but has no photos at all on her Instagram of her husband — it’s just work and friends. It was a big shock to hear. It’s been on the down-low,” a friend of Lauren’s tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY.
Jeff, 54, and MacKenzie, 48, shared a joint message on Twitter Jan. 9 that began “We want to make people aware of a development in our lives.” It went on to say ” After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends. We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures.” The couple have been married for 25 years and MacKenzie was Jeff’s accountant when he started up Amazon out of his home garage. Their $140 billion divorce is expected to an amicable one, as a lot of the money is tied up in the estranged couple’s stocks.
It appears the couple was trying to get ahead of the news, as the National Enquirer had a team of reporters following Bezos for the past four months and had numerous photos of him and Lauren holding hands and traveling together that they published in a Jan. 10 cover spread. By Jeff and Mackenzie announcing they’d already split, it took the wind out of the expose. It’s worth noting that the Enquirer is owned by American Media Inc, which is run by President Donald Trump‘s close pal David Pecker. Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has broken numerous stories critical of the Trump administration. So that fact that a Trump pal was going after one of his enemies seems like a little more than a coincidence.