By Isabel Mueller Eidhamar

CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos has accused an American gossip magazine of blackmail over intimate pictures from his affair with former TV host Lauren Sanchez, and for how they obtained the pair’s private messages.

The CEO mogul wrote an explosive blogpost detailing his communication with American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, accusing the outlet, its owner and leader David Pecker of blackmail.

In addition to blackmail, the billionaire, who also owns the Washington Post, said AMI had tried to prevent his investigation into how the outlet obtained his private messages with Miss Sanches, in addition to demanding he made a ‘false public statement’ denying that the National Enquirer’s coverage of him and his mistress was  politically motivated.

According to emails included in the blogspost, an AMI lawyer proposed on Wednesday that the photos would remain unpublished in return for a public statement by Mr. Bezos and his team that they had ‘no knowledge or basis’ to suspect such a motive.

The Amazon mogul and his team today decided to publish the evidence.

“Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail,” wrote Mr Bezos, “I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”

Mr. Bezos continued to write how his ownership of the Washington Post had caused him to make enemies with ‘certain powerful people’, including President Donald Trump, who is a close friend of AMI’s boss, David Pecker.

Recently AMI admitted it had co-ordinated with the Trump presidential campaign to pay hush money to a Playboy model for her to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the President.  Due to AMI’s cooperation with federal authorities however, they will not face prosecution over the payments, it was announced in December.

AMI responded to the allegations on Friday saying they believe the company ‘acted lawfully inthe reporting of the story of Mr Bezos”, and that they had been in ‘good faith negotiations to revolve all matters with him’ when the allegations were made.

The AMI board has convened this afternoon, and in their statement it is promised that they will ‘promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims’ made my Mr. Bezos.

Mr. Bezos is not the first to accuse AMI of blackmail, with The New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow taking to Twitter saying that he ‘and at least one other prominent journalist’ also had been subject to similar threats from AMI.

I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar “stop digging or we’ll ruin you” blackmail efforts from AMI. (I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.) https://t.co/kHQdWIkVjV

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) 8. februar 2019

Jeff Bezos announced his divorce from long-time wife Mackenzie Bezos a month ago when news of his affair broke, a divorce that could see her become the richest woman in the world if the settlement of the $137bn goes through.