The future Mrs Bezos: All you need to know about Lauren Sánchez ahead of the $10m Venice wedding set to be the celeb event of the year
The bride is Lauren Sánchez, 55, Emmy-winning journalist, former news anchor and helicopter pilot who recently led the infamous all-female space expedition with Katy Perry and other gal pals on her fiance's Blue Origin rocket. 'I can't put it into words,' she gushed afterwards, 'but I looked out the window and we got to see the moon.' She must have her eyes on the honeymoon now. Bezos and Sánchez tie the knot in Venice, celebrating from June 24 -26 with another galaxy of stars among the 200 guests: Eva Longoria, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian.
Rumours are flying, much like Sánchez. ('I want to be in a helicopter all the time,' she has said.) But a spokesman for the mayor of Venice confirmed to CNN that the nuptials will take place on Bezos's $500m super yacht Koru, to be anchored in Venice lagoon. The happy couple has also reportedly booked out the city's fanciest hotels, Gritti Palace and Aman Venice for family and friends, at a cost of some $2.5m.
Such were concerns about the wedding party potentially inundating the sinking city, the mayor's office released a statement clarifying: 'The Bezos wedding has not booked large amounts of gondolas or excessive numbers of water taxis.'
The gown will surely be excessive. Apparently Anna Wintour advised Sánchez to wear Oscar de la Renta. Expect wasp waist and unapologetic cleavage from the woman who scandalised America by wearing a white lace corset to Donald Trump's inauguration. Where to begin with this love story? It famously started as an affair in 2018 when both were married to other people — Sánchez to Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell (worth a piddling $480m, according to Bloomberg), the father of two of her three children; Bezos to novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, his wife of 25 years and mother of his four children.
All was revealed when Sánchez's brother made $200,000 selling the National Enquirer a sexy, bare-chested text sent from Bezos to Sánchez calling her his 'alive girl'. Undeterred, by 2020 they were an official couple. They are divisive, some calling them a pair of smug homewreckers and others lauding their age-appropriate chemistry and canny brand partnership. He has money and political clout; she has charisma and Hollywood connections. Both are self-made and ambitious with humble roots. She's a third-generation Mexican American; his father was a Cuban immigrant.
In 2023, the couple got engaged while vacationing in France on the 127-metre super yacht with its buxom wooden figurehead of Sánchez on the prow. The 30-carat diamond ring is worth an estimated $5m.
Last month, she flew her A-list besties to Paris for a four-day hen party, and 'one hundred percent' intends to take the Bezos surname. The couple's relationship is the focus of intense speculation and intrigue with most of the public discourse revolving around Sánchez. She is a fascinating operator.
Watching her many appearances on TV chat shows — on the other side of the table these days — it's clear her superpower is creating instant intimacy. She can believably seem like she's just like everyone else, with charming, disarming results. In her years as a TV correspondent, she was an expert at flattery and connection. In 2010, the same year she was voted in People magazine's top 50 most beautiful people, Sánchez's interview with Bill Clinton was a masterclass in effective plámás.
But you can't talk out both sides of your mouth.
Sánchez has been called a hypocrite for waxing proud about saving the planet and addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through her vice-chairmanship of the Bezos Earth Fund, which has pledged $10bn to climate action. When a 2020 Oxfam study found that the carbon emissions of the richest 1pc are more than double those of the poorest half of the world, it's a bit rich to expect kudos for trying to fix a problem you created.
With their space flights, private jets, massive yacht — and all those Amazon deliveries — Sánchez and Bezos are racking up a brachiosaurus-sized carbon footprint. Oh, and the SDGs also cover the protection of labour rights, like those highlighted in last year's award-winning documentary Union about Amazon's treatment of its workforce.
Little wonder Sánchez is leaning into the positive PR of being a poster woman for midlife love and reinvention. 'When I was 20, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, life is over at 50.' Let me tell you, it is not ladies — it is not over,' she grinned, on US talk show Today. 'It is just beginning.'
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