The Shady Side Of Lauren Sanchez Bezos

Lauren Sanchez Bezos’ transformation into an A-list celebrity was gradual. She triumphed over a dyslexic past and worked her way to becoming a news anchor and reporter, eventually gaining popularity as the host of “Extra” and “Good Day L.A.” Lauren, who clearly looked unrecognizable during her “Good Day L.A.” days, went on to ditch the world of broadcasting and began learning how to fly helicopters. She ultimately became the founder of Black Ops Aviation, an aerial filming company that has an elite entertainment clientele, including Sony and IMG.

Although she has an impressive career, Lauren became household name after she entered into a relationship with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The power couple exchanged vows in a dreamy three-day Italian destination wedding after years of courtship, but their union was marred by affair allegations. As such, the Internet is convinced that Lauren and Jeff’s marriage is doomed, despite the couple spending a reported $47 million to $56 million on their big day. 

One X user who holds such an opinion responded to a post about the couple’s nuptials by writing, “They [Jeff and Lauren] deserve each other. Let’s start the countdown to divorce. How could you ever really trust each other? Or yourself.” Unfortunately, Lauren’s alleged affair isn’t the only skeleton in her closet. The Bezos Earth Fund vice chairperson has quite a shady past, and needless to say, it does more harm than good to her reputation.

Lauren Sanchez Bezos’ highly publicized relationship with Jeff Bezos is reportedly due in part to her ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell. The pair is said to have first crossed paths because Whitesell is a key player at Endeavor, a talent agency that represented several A-list clients over the years, including Drew Barrymore, Matt Damon, and Jennifer Aniston.

Lauren and Jeff’s families were friends who often ran in the same social networks, as an unnamed source told Page Six. “Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both [now former] couples have houses in Seattle,” the informer said. The revelations may hold some truth because Lauren, Jeff, and Whitesell were pictured together at Damon’s “Manchester by the Sea” event in December 2016.

According to the insider, Jeff and Lauren established a professional relationship when the billionaire hired her as a helicopter pilot for his space company, Blue Origin. One thing led to another, but word on the street was that Lauren’s ex-husband, Whitesell, didn’t see the duo’s romantic relationship coming. “Patrick was totally blindsided,” another informer whispered to US Weekly. “He had no idea how serious the affair was or how long it was going on for.”

Lauren Sanchez Bezos was in a relationship with former San Diego Chargers wide receiver Anthony Miller. The duo first met in 1996, when Miller played for the Denver Broncos and Lauren was working as a news reporter and anchor at a Arizona television station.

The pair was together for four years and at one point was set to tie the knot. According to Miller, he didn’t really want to get married and only proposed at Lauren’s insistence. “I kind of gave her [the ring] because she bugged me about getting married,” Miller recalled in a later interview with Daily Mail, adding that he called off the engagement after one and a half years. She apparently didn’t give the engagement ring back after their breakup.

Miller told the publication they split happened after he read her diary and found out she was cheating. “I couldn’t really trust her,” the former Dallas Cowboys football player said, and continued, “She gets around. She was cheating on me with other guys.” However, contrary to Miller’s account, insiders in her camp claimed he was the more untrustworthy partner, since he supposedly fooled around with a stripper.

Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos’ relationship became public in January 2019, shortly after Jeff announced his divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Scott. The National Enquirer exposed the couple’s alleged affair, despite claims from Jeff’s camp that the pair started dating in the fall of 2018 after Jeff and Scott had parted ways. As a recap, the timeline of Jeff and Lauren’s relationship remains sketchy.

Back in March 2018, Jeff and Scott appeared to be on good terms when they publicly attended the Vanity Fair Oscar party. The exes also put up a united front in September 2018, when they pledged to donate $2 billion to homeless people and preschoolers after celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. However, the National Enquirer’s exposé featured texts between Lauren and Jeff that were sent earlier than the alleged separation time, including one which read (via Page Six), “I want to smell you, I want to breathe you in. I want to hold you tight…. I want to kiss your lips…. I love you. I am in love with you.”

By the time Lauren and Jeff’s relationship was public, the pair had allegedly been dating secretly for eight months. Jeff and Scott ultimately finalized their divorce in April 2019, and a day later, Lauren filed for divorce from Patrick Whitesell. Her divorce was finalized months later, long after she and Jeff had made their first appearance as a couple at Wimbledon.

Lauren Sanchez Bezos published a children’s book titled “The Fly Who Flew to Space” in September 2024. The book is an ode to children diagnosed with dyslexia — including Lauren’s son, Evan Whitesell — and tells the story of a fly named Flynn who dreams of becoming an astronaut. Flynn accidentally gets caught in a spaceflight and takes an adventurous trip around the universe.

According to Lauren, the book was inspired by a personal life event that occurred as she was flying a plane with her family on board. “A fly got stuck in the cockpit,” Lauren recalled in an interview with “Good Morning America,” and continued, “he was buzzing around, and my kids were, like, ‘Just think this poor fly was at home and now it’s up in the air going, ‘Oh my gosh! It’s a completely different world up here.'”

Jeff Bezos was reportedly the brains behind Flynn’s destination — space — but a subsequent lawsuit by Lauren’s former yoga instructor, Alanna Zabel, suggested otherwise. According to Zabel, she extensively engaged in discussions about a similar concept with Lauren while she was her trainer. The multiple-time author ultimately published a book titled “Dharma Kitty Goes to Mars,” and later accused Lauren of infringement of intellectual property. In her lawsuit, Zabel claimed the helicopter pilot often displayed “continual and outrageous acts of jealousy,” per Page Six.

Lauren Sanchez Bezos and former Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez dated in the early 2000s. The exes had a son named Nikko Gonzalez, who was born in 2001, and after their split, Lauren moved on with “No Good Deed” actor, Henry Simmons. The pair was pictured at numerous public events together and was set to tie the knot, but they unfortunately parted ways.

Lauren then started dating Patrick Whitesell. The former spouses walked down the aisle in August 2005, but sources claim she had second thoughts about the wedding. An insider told Page Six that she called up Tony to ask if he wanted to get back together, with a promise not to go through with the wedding if that were the case. At the time of the report, Lauren’s camp denied the claims.

Lauren and Tony had an erratic relationship when they began co-parenting, but the pair has since amended their relationship in the most unconventional way. The exes often spend holidays and vacations with their families (Tony has since married October Gonzalez). In fact, Tony and October were included in the guest list of Lauren and Jeff Bezos’ Italian wedding, and as Lauren told The Wall Street Journal in 2023, “I learned how to co-parent with him [Tony], so I have more experience than Jeff might have [co-parenting]. Tony and his wife Tobie are my best friends.”

A video of Lauren Sanchez Bezos appearing to be flirty with actor Leonardo DiCaprio at the LACMA Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles went viral in November 2021. The short clip showed Lauren smiling while affectionately gazing up at the “Don’t Look Up” actor, who seemed to be engaging in small talk using hand gestures.

Lauren was in the company of Jeff Bezos at the time, and social media sleuths were quick to notice how DiCaprio handled the situation. “Leo played it smart, he made eye contact with [the] dude as well to make sure we’re all on the same page,” one observer wrote on X. “Then [he] changed the location to get the hell out of that situation, well played.”

In response to the video, which Barstool Sports captioned, “Leo is Mr. Steal Yo Girl,” Jeff shared a picture of himself leaning on a cliff danger sign and playfully wrote (via X), “Leo, come over here, I want to show you something… @LeoDiCaprio.” Nonetheless, that didn’t mark the last time Lauren and DiCaprio were making headlines for awkward encounters. When Lauren and Bezos attended the amfAR Gala in France in May 2025, the former planted a quick kiss on DiCaprio’s cheek, even though it appeared that the actor was leaning in for a group hug.

During Jeff Bezos’ January 2019 row with the National Enquirer, the billionaire took to Medium to accuse the publication and its parent company, A.M.I., of blackmail. Jeff revealed there was a threat to publish his private photos, which included several nude and semi-naked shots of himself and Lauren Sanchez Bezos. According to the Amazon founder, the exposé was politically motivated. 

Jeff launched a personal investigation conducted by his long-term security lead, Gavin de Becker, and wrote that his lawyers “argued that AMI has no right to publish photos since any person holds the copyright to their own photos, and since the photos in themselves don’t add anything newsworthy.” In his write-up, he included email communication between himself and A.M.I.

The private investigation tied the leakage of Jeff’s private data to Saudi Arabia. His brother-in-law, Michael Sanchez, also took some of the blame. In a chat with Vanity Fair, Michael denied being in cahoots with the press and further accused Lauren of sharing Jeff’s nude pictures with her close circle. “There are, like, 20 dick pics. Lauren likely shared them with multiple girlfriends, not in a malicious way, that’s not her style, but when she’s in love, she got a kick out of sharing them,” Michael claimed. “One time she tried to show me one and I was like, ‘What the f**k is wrong with you? I don’t want to see that!'”

For most celebrities, negative PR is a side effect of fame that is often ignored unless their reputation is at stake. Even then, stars seek legal means of dealing with such cases, as “Bodak Yellow” rapper Cardi B did in a row with popular YouTube blogger Tasha K. However, for Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos, the sky is the limit when it comes to fighting bad publicity.

Former Fox News presenter Megyn Kelly knows this side of the couple firsthand. “They’re [Jeff and Lauren] vicious because Jeff Bezos runs The Washington Post [and] owns it,” Kelly claimed on an episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “We had a call [and were] doing some Hollywood PR firm [stuff]…and this PR agent went off on our booker. They [were] so angry because they represent her [Lauren] or they do some business with her.”

Similarly, when Jeff and Lauren were exposed by the National Enquirer, the e-commerce entrepreneur, whose net worth at the time of writing stands at $243.6 billion, reportedly considered purchasing its parent company, A.M.I. “We discussed the possibility to buy A.M.I. — not to kill the story, but to find out the source,” Lauren’s brother, Michael Sanchez, told Vanity Fair.

Lauren Sanchez Bezos and an all-female crew took a Blue Origin flight to space in April 2025. The 11-minute round trip, which included Gayle King and singer Katy Perry, was received with mixed reactions. While some fans were thrilled by the live coverage and couldn’t wait to sign up for their own flights, others were heavily critical. One X user thought it was wrong to market Lauren and the crew as astronauts. “Congratulations on breaking into the space tourism market. But seriously. “Astronaut crew”?? What an insult to all the incredible women who worked their butts off to become Astronauts. Real Astronauts. These women today were celebrity passengers on a 10-minute thrill ride.”

Other critics thought the length of the trip was underwhelming, while Lauren came under fire as a climate change awareness advocate through the Jeff Bezos-founded Bezos Earth Fund. Weeks after the trip, Lauren appeared in a video by the organization in which she announced the winners of the AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge. Critics in the comments were not impressed and reminded her of the carbon footprint from her spaceflight. “Lol save the planet but I’ll be on a jet flying all over the world and in space with my friends … yeah right, no footprint here,” one such critic wrote (via Instagram).

Lauren didn’t turn a blind eye to the public’s sentiments. In a conversation with People, she defended Blue Origin’s mission, insisting it was a project of passion for the company’s employees, who “don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle.”

Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez Bezos’ friendship dates back to 2023, when the “Last Friday Night” singer and Lauren were photographed on a joint European vacation with their partners. Months after their space flight, the singer joined other celebrities to celebrate the former anchor’s bachelorette party.

Lauren’s wedding was a star-studded affair, even though some celebrities who clearly don’t like her and Jeff Bezos. There was no doubt that Perry would be in attendance on her big day. Ahead of the nuptials, it was reported that Orlando Bloom, Perry’s presumed long-term partner, would attend the wedding on his own. Perry’s premeditated absence was assumed to be because of the Australian leg of the Lifetimes Tour, but soon after, word went around that she and Bloom had called it quits.

An unnamed source told TMZ that Bloom was planning to “hit the dance floor hard” as a single man during the Venice wedding. Another birdie told People the couple’s relationship was strained by the poor reception of Perry’s 2024 album, “143.” “It made her very stressed,” they said. “Orlando was understanding, but it did cause some tension.” Bloom’s attendance at Lauren and Jeff’s wedding appeared to be a shady move that raised questions about the nature of Perry and Lauren’s relationship. An insider told Daily Mail that Perry was bothered by the actor’s solo appearance because Lauren and Jeff were “really her friends more than his.”