Jeff Bezos is dating former news anchor Lauren Sanchez: Sources
Hours after Jeff Bezos announced he and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, planned to divorce, it’s been reported that the billionaire has already moved on. Sources have confirmed to Yahoo reports that the founder and CEO of Amazon is seeing Lauren Sanchez.
Bezos, 54, and Sanchez, 49, have been spending time together for a couple of months, according to sources, in the wake of their separations. Sanchez, a former Good Day LA anchor who appears on Extra and The View, is married to powerhouse Patrick Whitesell, one of Hollywood’s biggest talent agents, representing stars like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman. Sanchez and Whitesell have been married for 13 years, although Page Six reports the two have been separated for a while. Apparently, the former couples have known each other for years.
“Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both (now former) couples have houses in Seattle,” a source told Page Six. (The three were photographed at a party together in 2016 for Amazon Studios’ Manchester by the Sea, which starred Whitesell’s client Michelle Williams.) “Then Lauren was hired to work on one of Bezos’s projects, Blue Origin, a space launch company, as a helicopter pilot. She has been shooting aerial shots for Bezos.”c
Sanchez also works as a helicopter pilot and runs a company called Black Ops Aviation, which specializes in shooting aerial shots for films, TV and commercials.
“Patrick and Lauren Sanchez have been separated for a while,” the source continues. “Their marriage has been off and on for a while, and they tried hard to fix things, but in the fall they officially separated.”
People reports that Whitesell was made aware of his estranged wife’s new relationship.
“Lauren and Jeff have been spending a lot of time together over the last year and especially the past few months,” a source tells the magazine. “At first it was socially at parties … here and there. But their time together has definitely seemed to evolve, raising some eyebrows. Jeff has met a small group of Lauren’s girlfriends too. The two of them are sort of thick as thieves right now.”
In a joint statement on Twitter on Wednesday, Bezos and his wife announced their intention to “continue our shared lives as friends.”
“If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again,” they added. “We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures.”
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 9, 2019
Jeff and MacKenzie have four children together — three sons and one daughter, ranging in ages 13 to 18. Sanchez and Whitesell have two kids, and she has a son from her first marriage to former NFL player Tony Gonzalez. Neither has publicly commented on the reports.
Bezos, the richest person in the world with a net worth estimated to be around $137 billion today, and Sanchez were most recently spotted together at a Golden Globes after-party Sunday.
