Jeff Bezos

The founder of Amazon was until recently perceived to a be a nerdy technocrat bent on nothing more than dominating every single aspect of world commerce through ruthless efficiency. Now, the richest man in the world has transformed himself into the bulked-up, leather jacket-wearing owner of the Washington Post, willing to take on both rival media barons and the US president after details of his love life were made public. The 55-year-old struggled to control the scandal when the National Enquirer first revealed details of his affair with a TV presenter, Lauren Sanchez, last month but he has since gone on the warpath, responding to threats from the tabloid by publishing his correspondence with the outlet, including detailed descriptions of intimate images he sent to his lover.

In the age of Trump and Bezos, public life is one big smutty ancient Greek vase | Marina Hyde Read more

MacKenzie Bezos

Mackenzie Tuttle met Jeff Bezos at a New York hedge fund in 1992, shortly after graduating from Princeton, and they married a year later. The newlyweds soon crossed the country to Seattle in order to found Amazon as an early online bookstore. MacKenzie, 48, helped the business in its early days but soon stepped back from the company, instead focusing on writing novels, raising the couple’s four children and founding an anti-bullying organisation. Although she generally kept a low profile, she did leave an excoriating one-star review on Amazon of an otherwise-lauded history of the company. The couple announced they were separating this month, the day before the National Enquirer published its first story, with the divorce settlement putting MacKenzie in line to become one of the richest women in the world in her own right.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos. Photograph: Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Lauren Sanchez

Bezos’s affair with the TV presenter and helicopter pilot Sanchez has opened up a web of geopolitical intrigue that stretches all the way to the White House. Sanchez is a former host of the hit Fox TV show So You Think You Can Dance? and is now in the process of divorcing her husband, Patrick Whitesell. The 49-year-old mother of three – whose brother is a supporter of the pro-Trump dirty tricks Republican activist Roger Stone – now runs an aerial filming company. Footage she shot was allegedly due to be included in a never-used Super Bowl commercial for Bezos’s spaceship company, which was scrapped at the last minute in favour of an advert for the Bezos-owned Washington Post.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Patrick Whitesell, Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos at a party in Los Angeles. Photograph: Todd Williamson/Getty Images

Patrick Whitesell

Sanchez’s husband is the co-CEO of the Hollywood agency WME, which looks after some of the biggest stars in the world. A well connected individual, he runs the business with Ari Emmanuel, the brother of Barack Obama’s former chief of staff. Whitesell and his wife initially met Jeff Bezos at social occasions, after which Sanchez struck up an affair with the billionaire. Whitesell, 53, has announced that he and Sanchez are divorcing in the aftermath of the National Enquirer’s coverage of her affair.

David Pecker

The tabloid king has been publisher of American Media Inc – the owner of the National Enquirer – since 1999, building the company up to have a near monopoly on celebrity publications in the US. A longtime ally of Donald Trump, the 67-year-old helped to produce vanity publications for the New York businessman during the 1990s and has stayed within Trump’s orbit ever since. During the 2016 US election he bought up the story of a woman who claimed to have had an affair with Trump and then tried to suppress its publication, admitting in court that this counted as a secret in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign. Coverage of the Bezos affair has won plaudits from the US president, who has regularly criticised the owner of the Washington Post.

Gavin de Becker

Bezos’ longtime security adviser, 64, has been investigating the source of the leaked text messages and pictures that allowed the National Enquirer to expose the affair with Sanchez. The owner of a successful security consulting firm and author of bestselling books, he advises celebrities and high-powered businessmen on how to mitigate risks, specialising in investigating the threat posed by stalkers and obsessive fans. His speculation to Washington Post reporters that a government entity could be involved in the leak – without specifying which government – has ramped up speculation over the motivation behind the Bezos leak.

Dylan Howard

The Australian chief content officer of American Media Inc was credited on the original Bezos exposé and has earned a reputation for making deals in order to get stories. He was the man tasked with contacting Bezos with the list of pictures his publication intended to publish, with a note saying: “It would give no editor pleasure to send this email.” The 37-year-old has worked for the parent company for almost a decade, and allegedly provided information about Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan to the disgraced movie mogul.