...and that Mark Sanderson/courtship rumor spawned from imaginative speculation over a comment by Sanderson while opening the 2021 annual meeting where he flattered the live in-person audience with this statement:
"Well, I've seen many annual meeting audiences, but I have to say, you're the most beautiful audience I have seen, for a variety of reasons."
Sanderson appeared to direct the latter part of that compliment to a specific section of the audience seated to his left. Sanderson's face also appeared to have blushed during his remark.
That interaction was observed during live-stream of the annual meeting, but is omitted from the video recording presently available on jw. org, causing a few to speculate it may have been a flirtatious Sanderson gaffe faux pas targeting a romantic interest present in the audience.
Since such behavior would typically be out of character for a member of the JW governing body on platform, most viewers understood Sanderson's words in the context of the audience being an exceptionally "beautiful" sight to behold as the first major in-person assembly of JWs after nearly two years of pandemic social distancing; however, Sanderson describing that particular audience as beautiful "for a variety of reasons" adds some complexity to interpreting exactly what/who Sanderson praised as "the most beautiful"
That was October 2021. It is now March 2022... and remembering JW teaching frowns upon extended courtships (increases likelihood of pre-marital sex sins) Sanderson is, to-date, still reported as unmarried. So, if Sanderson is courting, pressure would be mounting for him to finalize or abort.
It is well known that Mark Sanderson has long despised jest about his marital status, thus he did himself no favor by that ambiguously flirtatious comment to a large adoring audience which included several single ladies with ambitious culty fingers.
