Is Lauren Sanchez, former anchor & pilot, behind Mr and Mrs Bezos's divorce?
According to reports, Bezos has been involved with Sanchez for the past eight months.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
On the left are Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie, pictured at an event. On the right is Lauren Sanchez.
At first glance, it was an amicable divorce. The world’s richest man and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie issued a joint statement on Wednesday that they were ending their 25-year-old marriage after a “long period of loving exploration and trial separation”.
But within a few hours of the announcement, things took a dramatic turn: reports claimed that Bezos was having a secret affair with the estranged wife of a Hollywood mogul.
According to reports, Bezos has been involved with former TV anchor and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez for the past eight months.
An explosive report on a news site claimed that Bezos cheated on his wife after “whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet” and “sending her raunchy messages and erotic selfies”.
Who is Lauren Sanchez?
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Sanchez is married to Hollywood talent mogul Patrick Whitesell. Their 2005 wedding, which cost $2 million, was a star-studded affair, with many of Whitesell’s famous clients, including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman and Jessica Alba, in attendance.
Sanchez and Whitesell have two children together: daughter, Ella, and son, Evan. Sanchez has another son from an earlier relationship.
In 2016, Sanchez got a licence to fly helicopters and launched Black Ops Aviation, an aerial filming company.
Bezos and Sanchez got to know each other through her husband. The trio were even photographed together at a party for 'Manchester by the Sea', which was produced by Matt Damon and distributed by Bezos’s Amazon, back in 2016. She was reportedly also hired to film aerial shots for Bezos’s company Blue Origin.
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According to a New York daily, Sanchez and Whitesell separated in the fall, and she and Bezos “became closer” afterwards.
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The news website claimed the affair carried on in “private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and quality time in hidden love nests”.
Another magazine carried a quote by a source, “Lauren and Jeff have been spending a lot of time together over the last year and especially the past few months. 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.”
No happily ever after Last September, Bezos and MacKenzie, who have four children, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Miami.
The couple first met at an investment management firm in New York, where he served as vice-president. MacKenzie was a research associate and Bezos was the first person to interview her at the firm. The two office neighbours fell in love and within three months, they were engaged and, three months later in 1993, they were hitched.
Their divorce could take away a sizeable chunk of the tech tycoon’s estimated $137 billion fortune.
CEO Summer Camp: Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, Satya Nadella Take Sun Valley By Storm
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It’s that time of the year – Sun Valley, or what’s popularly known as ‘summer camp for billionaires’.
The mogul fest takes place at the lavish 3,000 acre Sun Valley Resort at Idaho.
While it converts into a ski resort in winter, during the summer, guests can take part in golfing, cycling and white water rafting.
The billionaires are spoilt for choice – there are also signature massages at the destination spa, indoor bowling lanes in the basement and a man-made ice skating rink.
It’s that time of the year – Sun Valley, or what’s popularly known as ‘summer camp for billionaires’. The mogul fest takes place at the lavish 3,000 acre Sun Valley Resort at Idaho. While it converts..
