Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alleged Thursday that The National Enquirer tried to blackmail him, with the publication allegedly threatening to publish nude photos of Bezos if the Amazon CEO didn’t drop an investigation over leaked text messages that ultimately ended his marriage.
Bezos made the explosive claims in a blog post Thursday afternoon, which included multiple emails from executives of National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc (AMI).
In one of those emails, AMI’s chief content officer Dylan Howard describes one of the photos obtained by the publication as a “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’.” Other photos described in the email include half-dressed selfies of Bezos in a variety of situations, and photos of his new partner Lauren Sanchez that Howard described as “revealing her cleavage.”
Bezos alleges that AMI used the photos as leverage to get him to issue a statement that basically said AMI didn’t have political interests in pursuing a story about his affair.
Instead of making a deal with AMI, Bezos decided to go public, writing: “If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?”
Developing.