- Lauren Sánchez is an American journalist and former entertainment reporter
- She is engaged to Amazon creator Jeff Bezos
- Sánchez recently headed an all-female space mission – but who is she?
Lauren Sánchez made headlines on 14 April as she headed an all-female space mission. She was aboard the Blue Origin rocket New Shepard alongside Katy Perry, Gayle King, and other important female figures. Her mission was criticized, since it only lasted 11 minutes, but it was historic.
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Aside from being the first all-female space mission since 1963, it was the first with a pop star like Perry, 40, in space. However, Sánchez, 55, joining the singer in space is unsurprising as she is engaged to Jeff Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin.
Despite having a career as a successful journalist before dating the billionaire, 61, the relationship brought the 55-year-old into the spotlight.
But we aren’t here to talk about him, we’re here to talk about her. Outside of her relationship and space adventure, who is the journalist?
Who is Lauren Sánchez?
Lauren Sánchez – Early life
Lauren Wendy Sánchez was born on 19 December 1969 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was born to successful parents; her father, Ray, was an aviation businessman, and her mother, Eleanor, was a former assistant deputy mayor.
High school was easy for her, as she was a cheerleader, and after graduating, she studied acting and speech at the University of New Mexico. When college ended, a young Sánchez moved to sunny California to attend El Camino College.
Here she was diagnosed with dyslexia. This prompted her to support various initiatives to improve education and raise awareness of learning difficulties.
Once again, she attended university in 1990 and studied communications.
Her career
Beginning in the 1990s, she started her journalism career as a desk assistant at KCOP-TV in LA. After a few positions, she became a reporter on the Warner Bros entertainment show Extra.
Following that role, she joined Fox Sports Net and worked as an anchor and correspondent for the sports magazine Going Deep. For her work, she won an Emmy for this role and continued working with Fox on Fox Sports News Primetime and the Best Damn Sports Show Period.
Towards the end of the decade, she returned to KCOP-TV, winning an Emmy there. Continuing her affiliation with Fox, she was a co-host of KTTV Fox 11’s Good Day LA and anchor on Fox 11 News at Ten. Briefly, she hosted one season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2005 but left to give birth.
Wanting to go back to her roots, she returned to Extra as a weekend anchor and special correspondent in 2009.
Last year, the journalist became an author, and in 2024, she released her first children’s book, The Fly Who Flew To Space. It is about a fly named Flynn who gets stuck in the cockpit of a rocket and goes to space. Evidently, the story has a resemblance to her life as someone who has now headed a space mission.
In many films and TV shows, she has played an anchorwoman.
Philanthrophy
Working at her husband-to-be’s company, Sánchez is the chairperson of the Bezos Earth Fund, a fund aiming to create green spaces in underrepresented communities.
Love life
Let’s move on to Sánchez’s love life. From her previous beaus, she has three children. With her first and only husband, Patrick Whitsell, a Hollywood agent, she has a son and a daughter. They married in 2005.
News broke that she had an affair with Bezos in 2018. Subsequently, she and Whitesell got divorced in 2019. Simultaneously, Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Scott, also divorced. Since 2019, the couple has been dating, and after around four years of dating, they got engaged in 2023.
Still, the couple hasn’t set a wedding date yet as they are both very busy with their careers.
