13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Everything to know about the life and career of Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' wife
Lauren Sánchez married Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on June 27, 2025, in a dazzling Italian ceremony. Sánchez and Bezos' wedding was a star-studded affair, drawing some 200 guests, including billionaires and celebrities.
Sánchez has captivated the public ever since her relationship with Bezos went public in 2019. Here's a look at Sánchez's life and career.
Sánchez's early career in media
Sánchez grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and studied broadcast journalism at the University of Southern California. She began anchoring UPN News 13 on Los Angeles' KCOP in 1999, where her team won a Los Angeles Area Emmy award in 2001.
Sánchez went on to work as a host at various news channels before landing at Fox 11's "Good Day LA" in 2003, where she worked for six years. She then became a weekend anchor and special correspondent on "Extra" in 2009.
In addition to once being an anchor in real life, Sánchez has played a news anchor in movies including "Fight Club," "The Day After Tomorrow," and "The Fantastic Four."
She also used to host a dancing reality show; Sánchez was a host on the first season of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" in 2005, but she left the show after one season.
Sánchez's aviation career and company
Sánchez is also a licensed plane and helicopter pilot.
Sánchez learned how to fly while working as a news anchor and she started flying planes in 2011 before getting her helicopter pilot's license in 2016.
Her interest in aviation seems to have been sparked at an early age, as her father was a flight instructor and mechanic who rebuilt planes.
Sánchez founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016, a "female owned and operated" aerial filming company, which has shot footage for Amazon, Netflix, and Fox, among others.
Sánchez also lent her aerial-filming knowledge to Christopher Nolan as a consultant on "Dunkirk."
Sánchez's personal life and relationship with Bezos
Sánchez was married to Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell for 13 years.
Whitesell is co-CEO of the Hollywood agency WME, and his clients include Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Hugh Jackman. Whitesell and Sánchez married in 2005 and separated in the fall of 2018.
They finalized their divorce in October 2019 with shared custody of their two children, People magazine reported. Sánchez also has a son from her previous relationship with NFL star Tony Gonzalez.
Sánchez and Bezos got engaged four years after going public with their relationship.
Bezos and Sánchez first connected at a 2016 Amazon Studios party for the film "Manchester by the Sea," according to Brad Stone's book, "Amazon Unbound." They would meet again in 2018, when Bezos hired Sánchez's company to film footage for his rocket company, Blue Origin.
Their relationship came to light in a 2019 tabloid scandal, and the couple went public shortly after Bezos and his now-ex-wife, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, announced their divorce in 2019 following 25 years of marriage.
Sánchez and Bezos got engaged in May 2023. Sanchez was photographed with a large diamond ring on her left ring finger while onboard Bezos' yacht, Koru.
Since then, Sánchez and Bezos have often been spotted cruising on his yacht or attending high-profile events, including President Trump's inauguration.
In 2020, Bezos announced that he would commit $10 billion — about 7.7% of Bezos' net worth at the time — to fighting the climate crisis as part of an initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund. Sánchez serves as the organization's vice chair.
She's also a children's book author — Sánchez's picture book, " The Fly Who Flew to Space," came out in September 2024. She's talked about how her own struggles with dyslexia were part of the inspiration for her writing the book.
In April 2025, Sánchez went to space, leading Blue Origin's all-woman crew. The crew also included "CBS Mornings" cohost Gayle King, pop star Katy Perry, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The roughly 11-minute journey took the six-person all-women crew past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. Blue Origin says this was the first all-female flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova's flight to space in 1963.
