Who Is Patrick Whitesell? New Details On Lauren Sanchez's Husband — Including How He Feels About Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is dating a married woman.
Instagram Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rocked the journalism world last week when he penned a piece on Medium detailing an alleged extortion attempt over some racy photos. Bezos shared emails between himself and staff at American Media Inc. — parent company of The National Enquirer and other tabloids — wherein they threatened to go public with intimate photos Bezos had exchanged with his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez. The kicker was the AMI wanted the Bezos-owned Washington Post to drop an investigation into the murder of Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in exchange for keeping the pictures off the front pages of the tabloids.
Rather than comply with AMI's conditions, Bezos took the whole situation very public and in the process revealed a lot about his own life. He’s mid-divorce from his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, and while his relationship with Sanchez wasn’t a secret, this brought her into the spotlight in a new way. It turns out Sanchez is also still technically married, and her estranged husband is a mover and shaker in Hollywood. Patrick Whitesell is the co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor, a major talent agency in LA.
So, who is Patrick Whitesell? Read on for all the details.
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1. He was born in Iowa.
Whitesell was born in Iowa and has five brothers. After graduating from Luted College, he headed to L.A. and worked his way up the talent management ladder. He worked at InterTalent from 1990 to 1992, then moved to United Talent Agency (UTA) from 1992 to 1995. He was head of the talent department of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) from 1995 to 2001. In 2001, he became a partner at Endeavor Talent Agency and helped manage the merge between Endeavor and William Morris in 2009.
2. He has an A-List clientele.
Whitesell has one of the most impressive client lists in Hollywood, repping stars like Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Kevin Costner, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Ryan Reynolds, Jared Leto, and John Krasinski.
3. He has a legendary business partner.
In addition to repping major talent, Whitesell shares the corner suite with legendary agent Ari Emanuel. Emanuel has an incredible family pedigree of his own. His brother Ezekiel is an oncologist and bioethicist who Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. The third brother in the family is Rahm, who is the current mayor of Chicago and formerly served in Congress and was Chief of Staff to President Obama. Ari Emanuel was said to be the model for the character of Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage.
3. He's been married to Sanchez for almost 15 years.
Whitesell married Lauren Sanchez in 2005. The former news anchor had a child from a previous relationship, and she and Whitesell have two children together as well. The pair separated in the fall of 2018, though there had been rumors that their marriage was rocky before that as well. They have not officially filed for divorce despite their separation.
4. He knew Bezos before the cheating scandal.
Whitesell and Sanchez had known Bezos socially before their split. A source told Page Six that Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years because both [now former] couples have houses in Seattle. The source went on to describe how Sanchez got closer to Bezos.
“Then Lauren was hired to work on one of Bezos’ projects, ‘Blue Origin,’ a space-launch company, as a helicopter pilot. She has been shooting aerial shots for Bezos.”
5. Bezos went public with his pending divorce because of the tabloid drama.
Bezos went public with news of his pending divorce from his wife of 25 years. Shortly after sharing that news, The Enquirer spilled the beans about his relationship with Sanchez. Sources say the Bezoses announced their divorce because the tabloid revelations were coming. At the time, The Enquirer hinted at steamy photos Bezos and Sanchez had shared with one another.
6. The scandal involves some potential political drama.
The tangled web of the talent agency, the tabloids, and tech billionaires has the Washington rumor mill going full speed. WME agency used to rep Donald Trump when he was a reality tv host. Moreover, Trump is known to tweet denigrating things about Bezos and his newspaper The Washington Post. AMI, the parent company of the Enquirer is under investigation for killing stories that would damage Trump’s 2016 political campaign, including stories about Trump’s affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. Now, with Bezos having an affair with a WME CEO's wife and the Enquirer is trying to make life difficult for Bezos, political watchers are keeping a close eye on how this all turns out.
6. He's already dating.
While Whitesell hasn’t publicly commented on the relationship between his soon-to-be-ex and Bezos, he also isn’t staying home alone. Last week, he was spotted out at a club in LA with model and travel blogger Keir Alexa. There's been no official word on their relationship status.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a co-host of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.