Jeff Bezos’s mobile phone was hacked with a WhatsApp message sent from a number belonging to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, it has been claimed.

The Amazon boss and world’s richest man had intimate photos and messages stolen in 2018 after an infected video file was sent to his phone, according to The Guardian.

An analysis of Mr Bezos’s device reportedly found that the hack occurred during a seemingly innocuous WhatsApp conversation with Saudi heir Mohammed bin Salman.

The alleged exchange took place in May, several months before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident who wrote articles frequently criticising Saudi Arabia in the Washington Post, the US newspaper owned by Mr Bezos.

Private messages revealing that Mr Bezos, who is worth around £90 billion, was having an affair with media personality Lauren Sanchez were first published in early 2019 by The National Enquirer.