Who Is Jeff Bezos’s Fiancée? Everything About Lauren Sánchez After She Shocked Onlookers at Trump’s Inauguration

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president in a historic ceremony on Monday, after serving as the 45th president, with notable politicians like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in tow. But it was Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez who stole much of the thunder, at least online.

Specifically, the 61-year-old’s girlfriend shocked onlookers with what she was wearing: a white blazer buttoned at the waist, with a lacy white bustier seen poking through underneath. The outfit was deemed inappropriate for a political event by many, Parade reports.

“Jeff Bezos future wife Lauren Sánchez is incredibly inappropriately dressed for a state occasion,” one commenter wrote on X. “Someone should have told her that having her white lace bra out on display is not acceptable.”

But since well before the inauguration, Sánchez, 55, has become something of a media spectacle thanks to her relationship to Bezos, who currently ranks as the second richest person in the world, according to Forbes, and her own colorful personality and life story. From her journalism career and advocacy work to her piloting, below we have everything you need to know about Bezos’s wife-to-be.

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Who Is Lauren Sánchez?

Born December 19, 1969 in Albuquerque, NM, Sánchez is a third-generation Mexican American, E! News reports. She moved to Los Angeles following high school and attended El Camino College before transferring to the University of Southern California, where she studied communications.

Sánchez has a noted career as a journalist. She started with an internship at the local network KCOP-TV, before working her way up in the world of TV news. Bezos’s partner made a name for herself as an entertainment reporter on Extra and appearing on local L.A. news show Good Day LA. She also returned to her former internship home KCOP-TV in 1999 to become its 11 p.m. anchor, making her the first Hispanic woman to do so.

Relationship to Jeff Bezos

Despite her journalism bona fides, it’s fair to say that Sánchez has since made a much bigger name for herself thanks to her dalliance with Bezos, the Amazon founder and former CEO.

The couple got engaged in May 2023, after the tech maven proposed with a pink diamond he had hidden under her pillow. But they’ve been romantically linked since January 2019, around the time that Bezos and ex-wife MacKenzie Scott announced they would be splitting up following 25 years of marriage. Several reports claimed that Bezos had been secretly dating Sánchez while still with Scott (the National Enquirer even published texts allegedly sent between Bezos and Sánchez).

Sánchez is currently busy planning for her nuptials with the Silicon Valley pioneer. “I’m getting to it right now,” she told Today of the wedding preparation last year. “Very excited about it. Thinking about the dress, I have to say. I do have a Pinterest, I’m just like every other bride. So I do have a Pinterest board.”

And she reflected on how her life is no less exciting these days than it was when she was much younger. “I never thought at 54—I’m going to be 55—that I’d be an author, that I’d be getting married,” she said. “Life is just beginning. When I was 20, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, life is over at 50.’ "

"Let me tell you: It is not, ladies,” she added. “It is not over. It is just beginning. It just gets better and better.”

Her Past Relationships and Kids

While Sánchez’s relationship to Bezos tends to take up much of the space in headlines, she has an ex-boyfriend in retired NFL player Tony Gonzalez. The two welcomed their oldest son, Nikko Gonzalez, in 2001. Now 23 years old, he’s been seen by Sánchez’s side on the red carpet.

She also has another son, Evan Whitesell, 18, as well as daughter Ella Whitesell, 17, with ex-husband Patrick Whitesell, Today notes.

Sánchez gushed about Gonzalez on Instagram in 2024: “Really emotional day for me. My firstborn graduated from college today! My heart is overflowing with pride for this incredible young man. It seems like yesterday your dad and I were carrying you in our arms,” she wrote, captioning a photo of her son when he was a young boy.

“I just want you to know how immensely proud I am of you for achieving this milestone,” she added. “This is just the beginning, Nikko, and I hope you continue chasing your dreams with relentless originality. I love you so much.”

What About Her Other Pursuits?

Even with a long broadcast news career, three kids, and an engagement to one of the richest men alive, Sánchez finds time for a number of other activities. She and Bezos have a business partnership working on the Bezos Earth Fund, an organization that aims to fight climate change and protect the environment, where she is the vice chairperson.

She’s also a pilot and a New York Times best-selling author. Having long been passionate about aviation, Sánchez got her fixed-wing pilot license in the early 2010s and followed that up with a helicopter license, according to Vogue.

This atmosphere, however, is apparently not enough: She plans to head into outer space as part of an all-female mission on a rocket and capsule developed by Bezos’s space company Blue Origin. (Musk isn’t the only billionaire trying to conquer the stars.)

“When we think of women, a lot of times we don’t think of them as explorers,” Sánchez told Today. “We think of Magellan, Jacques Cousteau, but we’re explorers.”

Authorship, meanwhile, is a newer venture for Bezos’s fiancée. In September, she published her children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space, about a fly named Flynn who aspires to be an astronaut, which went on to become a bestseller.

Having battled with dyslexia throughout her life, Sánchez shared that her younger self would never have imagined that she’d be a published author.

“I hope Flynn’s journey inspires all the kids out there who struggle with learning differences. Remember, there are a thousand ways to be smart!” she wrote on Instagram. “Keep dreaming big, stay curious, and never let anything hold you back.”

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