It’s the marriage of the yr — and he or she’s the bride. Lauren Sánchez, a former journalist, is ready to marry Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in a marriage ceremony in Venice, Italy, this week. The nuptials, which have sparked protests from teams sad with what they see as a blatant show of earnings inequality within the floating metropolis, have additionally introduced company like Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady — a lot of whom rely Sánchez as a private pal.
However who’s Sánchez, and when did she develop into the following Mrs. Jeff Bezos? Let’s dive in.
Born in New Mexico and raised in California
Sánchez, who’s a third-generation Mexican American, was born in New Mexico in 1969. Based on CNN, she attended El Camino Faculty in California earlier than transferring to the College of Southern California, the place she studied communications.
Sánchez initially struggled in school resulting from her then undiagnosed dyslexia. In a 2024 Instagram submit, she shared {that a} professor “modified the trajectory” of her life by getting her examined for it. “Nothing was the identical after that — I discovered methods to be taught — and I’m eternally grateful,” she wrote in honor of World Ebook Day.
After her prognosis, Sánchez advised Elle, she “went from barely getting Cs in a group school, to incomes a 3.8 GPA, to then going to the College of Southern California and changing into a journalist.”
She’s labored in journalism — and helicopters
Sánchez started her broadcasting profession as a desk assistant at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, per USA In the present day, earlier than shifting on to her first on-air reporting job at KTVK-TV in Phoenix. She later labored as a reporter for Additional and held a number of roles at Fox Sports activities Internet.
In 1999, she auditioned for a spot on The View. In a January 2023 interview with WSJ Journal, Sánchez mentioned that studying she had not gotten a spot on the speak present (the function went to Lisa Ling) was “probably the most devastating days” of her life.
She went on to cohost Good Day L.A. in 2003, and had a stint because the host of the primary season of So You Suppose You Can Dance in 2005, earlier than taking a step again from internet hosting to deal with her household.
In 2014, she shifted to producing, cofounding Pursuit Productions with Dan Friedkin and creating initiatives like a World Battle II documentary in regards to the Battle of Tarawa.
Sánchez made one other main pivot in 2016, when she based Black Ops Aviation, an aerial movie and manufacturing firm. Sánchez, who grew to become a licensed pilot (following within the footsteps of her father, a flight teacher), labored with administrators like Christopher Nolan and Catherine Hardwicke, per the Hollywood Reporter.
“I had my job, I had a profession, after which I discovered a calling,” she advised THR in 2017. “I cherished leisure and I cherished filming, and so I bought to mix all of it.”
Her ardour for flying additionally impressed her to put in writing a youngsters’s guide referred to as The Fly Who Flew to Area. It was printed in English and Spanish in 2024.
In an interview with In the present day in 2024, she shared, “I by no means thought at 54 — I’m going to be 55 — that I’d be an creator, that I’d be getting married. I imply, life is simply starting.”
Sánchez has additionally turned her consideration towards philanthropic causes, working with organizations like This Is About Humanity, which helps separated and reunified households on the U.S.-Mexico border.
She’s been married earlier than
Previous to going public along with her relationship with Bezos in 2019, Sánchez was in two high-profile relationships.
Within the early 2000s, Sánchez dated NFL star Tony Gonzalez. The 2 by no means married, and share a son, Nikko, born in 2001. Sánchez and Gonzalez are on excellent phrases after their cut up — his spouse, October Gonzalez, even attended Sánchez’s bachelorette journey to Paris in Might.
Patrick Whitesell and Sánchez attend the Grammy Awards in 2012. (Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
“Tony and his spouse [October “Tobie” Gonzalez] are my greatest buddies,” she advised WSJ Journal in 2023. “It wasn’t all the time that method. There was friction [at the beginning]. However Tony and Tobie have been at Thanksgiving with us [this year], and we’re actually good buddies.”
In 2005, Sánchez married Patrick Whitesell, the manager chairman of media and leisure company Endeavor. The previous couple share youngsters Evan, 19, and Ella, 17. Although Sánchez and Whitesell didn’t formally divorce till 2019, Individuals reported that the 2 had been “on and off” for a while and separated when she and Bezos started seeing each other.
How she met Bezos
It was Whitesell who reportedly launched Sánchez to Bezos in the course of the premiere of the movie Manchester by the Sea in 2016, although Sánchez and Bezos didn’t reconnect once more till 2018, when the Amazon founder employed Black Ops Aviation to work on a movie about his house firm Blue Origin.
Sánchez and Bezos attend the 2023 Vainness Truthful Oscar Get together. (Getty Photos)
In a 2023 interview with Vogue, Sánchez mentioned she was “trying ahead to being Mrs. Bezos,” confirming she would take her soon-to-be husband’s final title. And the next yr she advised Additional that Bezos was “superb.”
“I get to spend the remainder of my life with him and he loves my youngsters,” she gushed. “And that’s actually what I’m trying ahead to.”
