Bezos’s wife Lauren Sanchez demands $190,000 from brother after years-long family feud
Lauren Sanchez and her husband, billionaire Jeff Bezos, are demanding that Lauren’s brother, Michael Sanchez, pay nearly $190,000 in legal costs arising from a years-long family dispute. The motion was filed on July 28 in the Superior Court of California.
In it, the couple asks the court to order Michael to cover $182,000 in attorneys’ fees and $8,000 in court expenses related to their defense in a defamation case, according to Enstarz and Marca.
The dispute dates back to 2020, when Michael Sanchez filed a lawsuit claiming he was unfairly accused of leaking intimate text messages and photos related to the personal lives of Bezos and Sanchez to the National Enquirer. Lauren and her legal team described these allegations as “a years-long campaign of harassment” aimed at pressuring her into “a completely undeserved financial settlement.”
In their motion, the couple states that the legal costs arose from their successful motion to dismiss Michael’s lawsuit and their request for reimbursement of court expenses and attorneys’ fees.
Bezos and Sanchez cite a California law known as Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), which protects individuals from frivolous lawsuits intended to silence them. They insist that Michael’s accusations were “frivolous” and “baseless.” The couple’s legal team charges between $549 and $1,125 per hour, which makes up a significant portion of the claimed amount.
This is not the first time Bezos and Sanchez have recovered legal fees from Michael over this case. In 2021, the court ordered him to pay more than $218,000 in attorneys’ fees. However, the dispute is still ongoing, and the latest move to demand payment of new costs came just weeks after the couple’s lavish $50 million wedding in Venice.
The family dispute began amid Jeff Bezos’s high-profile 2019 divorce from MacKenzie Scott, after which reports of his relationship with Lauren Sanchez surfaced in the press. The situation escalated significantly when the National Enquirer obtained personal messages and photos of Bezos and Sanchez, which it threatened to publish. Bezos publicly disclosed these details himself, accusing the tabloid of attempting to blackmail him.
In response, Michael Sanchez denied being involved in leaking the “explicit selfies.” However, court documents show that in October 2018 he signed a nondisclosure agreement with American Media — the publisher of the National Enquirer — concerning certain information, photographs, and messages related to the Bezos–Sanchez affair.
Following the latest court filings, Michael responded publicly, calling Bezos and Lauren “liars and frauds” and accusing the justice system of being corrupt.
Deputy Editor
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