UPDATE, 3/30/20, 1:47pm ET: Michael Sanchez filed a defamation lawsuit on March 27, 2020 against the National Enquirer and its parent company, American Media, denying that he told the publication about his sister, Lauren Sanchez‘s relationship with Jeff Bezos. Michael also denied that he gave National Enquirer nude or revealing photos of his sister and Jeff Bezos, according to our sister site, Variety.
American Media said in a statement to Variety, “The filing by Mr. Sanchez is his latest attempt to ignore the truth and rewrite history. The fact, as we have maintained throughout, is that Mr. Sanchez sold the National Enquirer the story about his sister’s secret affair and was the sole source for its reporting. His frivolous lawsuit underscores what his true motivation is, his own greed.”
ORIGINAL: It appears Thanksgiving in the Sanchez household will be even more awkward this year if what The Daily Beast reports is true. Michael Sanchez, the brother of Jeff Bezos’s love, Lauren Sanchez, was the one who allegedly gave the couple’s racy sexts to the National Enquirer, multiple sources in AMI (the Enquirer’s parent company) tell The Daily Beast. Jeff claims AMI “blackmailed” him by threatening to public explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained the texts between him and Lauren (and affirmed that the Enquirer’s reporting on his alleged affair wasn’t politically motivated.)
Michael declined to respond to The Daily Beast’s “more than half-dozen” requests to comment, and AMI declined to comment to both the Beast and to HollywoodLife.com. (HollywoodLife.com has also reached out to Jeff and Lauren for comment.) So, who is Lauren Sanchez’s brother?
1. He’s a “Hollywood-based manager and publicist.” Michael, in a now-deleted Facebook page (according to Heavy.com), wrote that he worked as an agent for International Creative Management, a talent and literary agency. He also reportedly worked for MTV as Director of Sales & Marketing in New York City from 1999 until 2004. He, per Heavy, is currently a Talent Manager/Producer for Axis Management, and a founding partner of Double Tap Media.
2. He’s supposedly a registered Democrat and a Trump Supporter… Michael has described himself as “a gay man, a Hispanic, a West Hollywood homeowner and strong supporter of [President Donald] Trump,” according to the LA Times, and like the president, he frequent slams “fake news” (aka CNN or any other organization critical of Trump) on Twitter. Despite all this, Fox News says he’s a registered Democrat.
3. …and has many ties to people connected to Trump. Michael, according to The Daily Beast, has many “personal and business ties” to some prominent members in Trump’s orbit, including Roger Stone, Carter Page, and Scottie Nell Hughes. His bromance with Roger Stone is more than just business, as Stone called Michael a “very hot Hollywood manager, happens to be a friend of mine,” in an interview posted to Alex Jones’s website, Infowars.
4. He slammed Jeff’s longtime adviser over the sexting controversy. None of the sources who spoke to The Daily Beast in the report accusing Michael of leaking the sexts implied that he “in anyway hacked [Lauren’s] phone,” and added that he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
Michael has pointed the finger at Jeff Bezos’s security adviser Gavin de Becker for blowing up the scandal while speaking to Fox News’ Media Buzz on Feb. 10. During his appearance on the program, Michael said he had been negotiating with AMI to “soften” a forthcoming story about Jeff and Lauren’s alleged affair when Gavin “launched World War III” against the company. Gavin, according to Michael, advised Jeff to undermine the scoop with a tweet about Bezos’s divorce from wife, MacKenzie Bezos. “Everything that Gavin has advised Jeff to do has only amplified the magnitude of the scandal,” he said on Media Buzz.
5. He’s married. Michael and his husband, Casey Ashby, tied the knot in 2011 “at Michael Kors Lifestyle in West Hollywood, in Los Cabos, Mexico, at the Westin Resort on Nov. 11,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The pair was joined by 60 guests, including Lauren and her husband, WME’s Patrick Whitesell.