Putting on a brave face. Patrick Whitesell stepped out for the first time since the news of his wife Lauren Sánchez’s affair with Jeff Bezos broke.
The WME co-CEO appeared carefree while out for a drive in Beverly Hills on Thursday, January 10. Whitesell sported a huge smile and sunglasses behind the wheel of his black Mercedes-Benz.
The National Enquirer broke the news on Wednesday, January 9, that Bezos was cheating on his now-estranged wife, MacKenzie Bezos, with Sánchez. The magazine reported that the Amazon CEO and the former Extra host have been seeing each other for eight months and their spouses found out about the dalliance in the fall.
“Patrick was totally blindsided. He had no idea how serious the affair was or how long it was going on for,” a source told Us Weekly exclusively after the Enquirer’s findings came to light.
The insider noted that Whitesell and Sánchez “were having problems in their marriage for the last year.” However, they “were trying to work things out.”
Meanwhile, another source told Us that the talent agent “introduced Lauren to Jeff and suggested they work together on a documentary.”
Hours before news of the affair came out, Jeff announced his plans to divorce MacKenzie, whom he wed in 1993. “As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends,” the businessman wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other. If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again.”
The joint statement continued: “We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures. Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends.”
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