On January 9, 2019, the richest man in the world announced his divorce. One day later, a tabloid story detonated across the internet — exposing a months-long affair between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, complete with leaked texts, private jet travel, and a global media frenzy.

In this episode of Affairs Through the Ages, I break down one of the most infamous modern affairs — not to condone it, and not to judge it — but to examine how it unfolded, why it didn’t collapse immediately, and how it became one of the rare affairs that actually turned into marriage.

This episode explores:

1. How Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez met through professional aviation work at Amazon Studios
2. The quiet unraveling of both marriages before the affair became public
3. The role of National Enquirer, alleged blackmail, and the unprecedented Medium post that exposed it all
4. The betrayal that came from inside Lauren Sanchez’s own family
5. Why less than 2% of affairs turn into lasting marriages — and what made this one different

I also examine the broader realities behind affairs that survive public exposure: wealth, timing, maturity, shared interests, clean divorces, and the difference between fantasy and real life once secrecy disappears.

Affairs Through the Ages is a historical and cultural examination of affairs that played out in the public eye — not a defense of infidelity, and not a moral verdict — but an honest look at what actually happens when private relationships collide with power, money, and global scrutiny.

If you’re interested in modern relationships, infidelity, divorce, power dynamics, and what happens after the secret comes out, this series is for you.

Research for this episode includes reporting from The Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, NPR, Fox Business, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal. Jeff Bezos's Medium post "No Thank You, Mr. Pecker" provided firsthand account of the blackmail attempt. Additional sources include court documents from the Bezos-Scott and Sanchez-Whitesell divorce proceedings, federal prosecutor statements regarding the National Enquirer investigation, and MacKenzie Scott's philanthropic disclosures via her Giving Pledge commitments and Yield Giving website.

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January 19th, 2019. Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, posted a joint statement with his wife of 25 years announcing their divorce. It's cordial, dignified, a mutual decision after quote, a long period of loving exploration. 24 hours later, the National Enquirer drops 11 pages that blow up the internet. Text messages, private jets across five states, a months long affair with Emmy winning journalist,

Lauren Sanchez and one phrase that becomes an instant meme quote, I love you alive girl.

But here's where it gets wild. Within weeks, Bezos does something no billionaire has ever done. He publishes the tabloids blackmail threats on Medium, calling out alleged extortion. His own security investigation points to the leak coming from Lauren's brother, who sold them out for $200,000. Six years later, they got married in Venice in one of the most expensive weddings of the decade. Their af fair beat odds that statisticians say are basically impossible.

less than 2 % of affairs turn into lasting marriages. So what makes this one different? I'm Nikki Corbett, and this is my series, Affairs Through the Ages, brought to you by the Scarlet Edit. If this is your first introduction to the Scarlet Edit, I'd like to welcome you. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts, please take 30 seconds and go and rate their show five stars. I will absolutely love you forever.

I'd also like to share what Affairs Through the Ages is and is not. It is not a series condoning affairs, but it is also not a series judging affairs. It is a retelling of an affair that was in the public eye sometime between now and when time literally began. Did you know that affairs are on record since before Jesus walked the earth? They are. Now, let's get into it.

She wasn't just the CEO putting her name on it, though.

Any human should be tracked because of their personal relationships. But investigative journalism certainly is intriguing. Jeff and Lauren are taking selfies, sending text messages. I love you alive, girl. I want to smell you. I want to breathe you in. Your energy and ideas and competence and spirit turn me on. OK, all of these make me cringe.

only from the perspective of we all know what it's like to be totally enamored with somebody and to just send text messages when you're in that state of love and lust and excitement. But we don't want anybody else to read them. Like, they're intended for one person. So they're not intended for everybody around the world, anybody to be able to Google and read. So it just makes me cringe knowing.

that it's like there was so much more, like I don't want to read them. Like I don't want to read somebody's intimate messages to their person. That's for private eyes only. But I also think it just kind of means that like nothing is actually private unless you're talking to somebody one on one with like no technology in the room listening, right?

These text messages aren't just physical. They're building emotional intimacy, falling in love, or at least building something that feels different from what each of them have at home. Meanwhile, all four of them are still showing up at the same events, playing the part of two friendly couples. Patrick and Mackenzie, though, have no idea.

Michael Sanchez, Lauren's brother, Hollywood talent manager, and Trump supporter with connections to Roger Stone. Here's Michael's version. Lauren came to him worried that the affair would leak. She allegedly wanted to get ahead of it, maybe leak to TMZ herself. He says he advised her against that and went to the National Enquirer to protect her. Better to deal with one outlet than a media free for all. But here's what actually happened.

Stone, a political operative, a Trump ally. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.

Trump hated Bezos over Washington Post coverage.

The National Enquirer CEO, David Pecker, was Trump's longtime friend. So was this about money or politics or both? We don't know because Michael's never given a clear answer, but it's clearly very, very messy. When confronted, Michael denied being the source.

then claimed he was protecting them, and then he sued both the Enquirer and Jeff for defamation.

The Enquirer responded, quote, Michael Sanchez sold the national Enquirer the story and was the sole source, end quote. Here's what's striking. Lauren has never publicly addressed her brother's betrayal. Not in an interview, not in a statement, not on social media, nothing. Complete radio silence on the topic. Michael was not in attendance at their wedding in Venice.

The guest list included Oprah, the Kardashians, Tom Brady, Bill Gates, and even Lauren's ex, Tony Gonzalez. But there was no Michael Sanchez. Other members of her family were there, but not him. So I have a lot of thoughts on all of this. I have to assume that Lauren truly had no idea that her brother had done this. And the reason I think that is because I think that if Jeff were to have known that Lauren knew this was happening for three whole months time before the story broke,

or even if Michael had come to her and told her a month before, two weeks before, that that would be such a huge betrayal from her to him. So I strongly believe that Lauren had no idea, and that's probably one of the biggest things that made her and Jeff stay together, because I just can't see a man of his status and success and power feeling like the woman that he was in love with, the woman that he had this brand new exciting relationship with,

as his marriage was ending that he would be okay with her knowing that this huge bomb was gonna hit the media without his knowledge. So I am of the assumption that Lauren did not know that her brother had made this massive deal with the National Enquirer. And I'm also curious to know like where did they get the $200,000 valuation? Like why was that information valued at $200,000 and not less or not more? I mean, he's the richest man in the world at the time.

The National Enquirer publishes everything about the affair between Jeff and Lauren.

Jeff then hire security consultant Gavin De Becker to investigate the leak. The investigation points to Michael and raises questions about political motivations. When the Enquirer learns Jeff is investigating, they panic and threaten him. In emails, they say they'll publish explicit below the belt selfies of Jeff unless he stops investigating and issues a statement saying their coverage wasn't politically motivated. They put this in writing.

Jeff writes, of course I don't want personal photos published, but I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out. This was unprecedented. Billionaires don't do this. They hire lawyers and make problems go away quietly. But Jeff called their bluff.

federal prosecutors started investigating, within months, the Enquirer was put up for sale.

So she definitely had legal grounds Why didn't she? Why didn't she ask for more? I don't know. It could have been speed, independence, not wanting to prolong a court battle, or simply just because she wanted to move on, and 38 billion is a lot of fucking money.

There was no public fighting, no custody battles, no leaked accusations. She issued a gracious statement wishing Jeff well. Post divorce, she became Mackenzie Scott, signed the giving pledge and has since donated over 26 billion to nonprofits. Her net worth is still around 40 billion because Amazon's stock continued to grow.

to, I mean, their friends obviously know who their parents are, but to be able to go through life relatively anonymously, unlike some other celebrity children who are in such, like the media from the time they're infants, it's gotta be such a different world and really cool, I think, for them to be able to actually grow up and choose what kind of life they wanna live for themselves, whether it's public or private.

Lauren has three children, one with ex football player Tony Gonzalez and two with Patrick. So total seven kids, blended family. By all accounts, they're okay. There was no reported custody drama, but obviously they have all kept their children so quiet, we don't really know anything about how either divorce did or did not affect any of them.

So let's move on to some statistics around affairs and marriage. Only 5 to 7 % of affairs result in marriage. 5 to 7 % of affairs. Of those, 75 % end in eventual divorce. Overall, less than 2 % of affairs become lasting healthy marriages. Jeff and Lauren have been together now over six years. They were engaged for two, and they got married last summer. So what makes them different?

Here are some of my thoughts and my own speculation based on nothing but my mind and some of my experience. Number one is wealth. Wealth definitely removes obstacles. There's the old saying, money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a lot of other things that contribute to happiness. They both could afford clean divorces, the best lawyers and privacy when needed. Most affair marriages collapse under financial stress and custody battles, but they had resources to handle everything smoothly.

But wealth alone obviously doesn't keep you together. Plenty of rich people have affairs that crash spectacularly. But having the means to do what needed to be done certainly helped and definitely helped. Both of the marriages that they were in were already over. And I think that this is a key point. There are times when couples stay together and they know that they have outgrown one another. Obviously in this case, Jeff and Mackenzie had already been quietly separated and it wasn't made public yet.

Lauren and Patrick's marriage had felt like a business relationship for a very long time. And so this wasn't impulsive. It wasn't a grass is greener situation. It wasn't a, my gosh, both of the spouses are gonna be so devastated when they find out. I mean, they certainly, I would imagine they certainly weren't thrilled in learning about it, but it wasn't like they were walking around the world thinking that their marriage was sunshine and rainbows while their spouses were off having an affair.

Both of their marriages were deteriorating before the affair started.

Jeff and Lauren have a lot of shared passions. It's very common to talk about, do we have shared morals, shared values, shared outlook on what's going on in the world, shared religious views, shared ways we wanna raise kids? But I also think that it's important to have shared interests and have little things in common because little things can often compound and make up the big things. Jeff and Lauren are both workaholics. They're both intensely ambitious.

They have shared passion for aviation and they can like talk shop in ways that their previous spouses maybe couldn't. The next thing is that they weathered the worst. This is something that can definitely make or break you. Now they're both already public figures before they got involved with one another. So certainly used to being names in the media, but this got really big, really fast in a surprising way that they weren't anticipating. So having a global scandal, dealing with blackmail, her brother's betrayal,

a $38 billion divorce for Jeff, federal investigations. I mean, if this relationship was going to fail and crack under pressure, I think maybe one of those things, let alone all of those things, would have done it. But instead, it certainly looked like it bonded them. Once the divorces were final, they had a clean slate. They could live out loud. They weren't lying anymore. They weren't sneaking around anymore. They didn't have to live these double lives. And that probably felt like a huge weight was lifted off their shoulders when they could just finally be.

I think life stage and maturity also really play a role in why after all of the global scandal broke and everything that happened after it, why they've managed to stay together. Jeff is 61, Lauren's 55. Obviously we know they've both been previously married, they have kids, and they've both achieved success in their own right. So at this point, they're choosing each other because they want each other, not because they need each other. This isn't a midlife crisis for either of them.

They understand what relationships require, and they understand what they each want in a partner. Jeff clearly values having a partner that understands his businesses, understands what he's doing, and wants to build with him. And Lauren has a lot of those attributes, given that she has her own aviation business. She can have conversations with him about all of that stuff as he continues to build Blue Origin. And I think that they both really value that in one.

So this wasn't a, this is so fun to sneak around and travel and have this wild, crazy, sexy affair. They actually really, really like each other and want to be together versus just a sordid fling. So as we wrap this up, here's what I keep thinking about. Most affairs are built on fantasy, sneaking around stolen moments, the thrill of the forbidden. When they become real life, they eventually collapse under guilt, anger, finances hurt, social stigma.

Even if you don't get caught, once the fantasy part simmers down, it can really hit hard and make the relationship less shiny and less exciting. Jeff and Lauren's affair became real life immediately and publicly. So they didn't really have a transition period. The whole world was watching. So they had to build something real from day one if they were going to do it at all.

I think this affair succeeded not because affairs are great or true love conquers all. I think it succeeded because two people who are already ready to leave their marriages found each other at the right time. They weathered unbelievable scrutiny, they had the resources to do it right, and everyone involved chose grace over revenge. Now I want to be clear, I'm not saying they deserved this happy ending, although spectators to affairs sometimes do say for an affair to be worth it.

they better end up together. And in this case, so far, they have.

Will this last forever? Who knows? Statistics still aren't in their favor, so only time will tell. I, because I am an utter hopeless romantic, I do hope it works out. I hope that this is the end for them. I hope they live a long, happy, beautiful life together and that in no amount of time, I'm sitting here again telling a story about an affair with either of their names in it. I love love, and I love seeing people in love.

And when you go through a lot of shit to get that love and you still keep fighting for each other.

I wanna see people win because I love love. Anyway,

As always, thank you so much for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. Come back on Thursday for a regular episode of the Scarlet Edit. As always, if you are listening on Apple, please go and rate this show five stars. I will love you forever. I'm Nikki Corbett, and this is the Scarlet Edit. P.S., if you've made it this far, this is the third time I recorded this episode. The first time, I just didn't like it. The second time, I loved it.

But my microphone wasn't all the way plugged in, so the audio sounded like absolute shit. So I came up.

Anyway, if you heard that, let me know. See you on Thursday.