Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer of blackmailing and extortion

It has been a month since the National Enquirer published a story about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The story focuses on Bezos's relationship with TV host Lauren Sanchez. Now, the billionaire has accused the owner of the outlet AMI and leader David Pecker of blackmail.

I’ve written a post about developments with the National Enquirer and its parent company, AMI. You can find it here: https://t.co/G1ykJAPPwy

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 7, 2019

"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail," Bezos wrote in a blog post on Medium, the executive published emails they sent proposing a "completely confidential" agreement.

In return for a commitment of not publishing the photos obtained from his text messages, AMI's general counsel Jon Fine asked Jeff Bezos for a statement "affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

Bezos cites his lawyer's investigation into how National Enquirer got their hands on the text messages as the prime reason for the outlet threatening to release his "below the belt selfie," with other images.

Jeff Bezos, who is the world's richest person is separating with his wife MacKenzie after 25 years. Amazon shares went down by 0.5 percent after the announcement. They got married in 1993 and after a year of marriage, Amazon was founded. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos is worth $137 billion.

"After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends," wrote Bezos in a tweet.