Meet Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancée who went to space with an all-female crew

Sánchez grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and studied broadcast journalism at the University of Southern California. She started her journalistic career as an intern on the Los Angeles station Channel 13 during college, according to a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

She began anchoring UPN News 13 on Los Angeles' KCOP in 1999, winning a Los Angeles Area Emmy award for her work on the show in 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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 starred as a news anchor in movies including "Fight Club," "The Day After Tomorrow," and "The Fantastic Four."

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.

"I was always in the hangar growing up but knew nothing about flying," she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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 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.

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.

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."

Their relationship "blossomed" during helicopter rides in 2018, when Bezos hired Sánchez's company to film footage for his rocket company, Blue Origin, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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.

In May 2023, CNN reported that Sánchez and Bezos had gotten engaged, citing a source close to the couple. Sanchez was also photographed with a large diamond ring on her left ring finger while onboard Bezos' $500 million megayacht.

In Vogue's December 2023 issue, Sánchez revealed that Bezos proposed on his yacht, Koru.

"When he opened the box, I think I blacked out a bit," she said.

While Sánchez and Bezos have often been spotted cruising on his yacht or attending high-profile events, including President Trump's inauguration, Sánchez says they also have more mundane days at home.

"On a typical Saturday, we hang out, we have dinner with the kids, which is always fun because you never know where the conversation is going to go with this many kids," Sanchez told The Wall Street Journal in 2023. "We are the Brady Bunch!"

In 2020, Bezos announced that he would commit $10 billion — about 7.7% of his 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.

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. Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, and Karlie Kloss have endorsed the book, with Kloss writing that the "story sparks curiosity and imagination while introducing young minds to the magic of STEM!"

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.

Sánchez told Elle magazine she handpicked her crew, choosing each of the women because they're all "storytellers in their own right. They're going to go up to space and be able to spread what they felt in different ways."

Speaking right after the crew touched back down in Texas, Sánchez said she felt "complete and utter joy and gratefulness."

"I can't put it into words," she said. "It was like quiet but also really alive. And you look at it and you're like we're all in this together. That's all I could think about. We're so connected, more connected than you realize because you just see right here, you see states and all these things that divide us, but we're not."

Sánchez described seeing the moon and joked she had to return because of her and Bezos' upcoming nuptials.

"I had to come back, I mean we're getting married," she said. "If I didn't come back, that would be a bummer for me."

The reported guest list for Bezos' and Sánchez's wedding includes names like Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, and Ivanka Trump.

Venice, which has been sinking, has in recent years tried to curb overtourism, which has contributed to pollution and other quality of life issues for local residents.

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement that Bezos and Sánchez "have categorically not booked large amounts of gondolas or excessive numbers of water taxis."

"It is their utmost priority to make sure the city functions as normal, for all, with no abnormal disruption to anyone," the mayor added.