Jeff Bezos and former news anchor Lauren Sánchez went public with their relationship in 2019 after Bezos announced his divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie.
In her first solo interview, since the couple went public with their romance, the former news anchor, 53, dished on her career, and what it’s like to be dating one of the richest men in the world to the Wall Street Journal.
1. She says Bezos is her inspiration and also discussed his infectious smile.
When I first heard his laugh, I was like, ‘Whoa! What is that?’ Now I love it,” she said.
“He’s so happy, he inspires me every day, he makes me a better person every day; he’s the most loving human I know,” she added.
2. She revealed she was deemed too heavy to be a flight attendant.
At 18 years old, Sanchez had dreams of being a flight attendant, however, her career move fell short when she narrowly failed a weigh-in for the role at Southwest Airlines in 1989.
“Back then, they weighed you, and I weighed 121 pounds,” Sánchez said. “They said, ‘You need to be 115.'”
3. Sanchez and Bezos are working together to successfully blend their huge family.
Sánchez has three kids from previous relationships, while Bezos has four from his marriage to MacKenzie Scott.
The mom of three is pulling inspiration from the co-parenting relationship she has with her eldest son Nikko’s father.
“My greatest example is the relationship I have with my eldest son’s father, Tony [Gonzalez],” she told WSJ. “I learned how to co-parent with him, so I have more experience than Jeff might have. Tony and his wife [October “Tobie” Gonzalez] are my best friends.”
Sánchez added that their relationship was not always great, but now they are “really good friends.”
That took about five years, but we always communicated,” she continued. “I’m not saying that being best friends with your ex is the end-all-be-all. My son looks at me, and he’s like, ‘I’m the luckiest boy in the world because I can have Thanksgiving with both my parents and they don’t have to be married.’”
4. How the family spends time together.
Although their relationship is in the limelight, Sánchez says there’s plenty of ordinary in her life with Bezos, 59.
“On a typical Saturday, we hang out, we have dinner with the kids, which is always fun because you never know where the conversation is going to go with this many kids,” Sánchez told the WSJ. Magazine. “We are the Brady Bunch.”
“Every Sunday morning, Jeff makes pancakes. He wakes up early. He gets the Betty Crocker cookbook out every time, and I’m like, ‘OK, you’re the smartest man in the world; why don’t you have this memorized yet?’ But he opens it up every time. Exact portions make the best pancakes in the world.”
5. Her most devastating experience.
Sánchez recalls the moment she felt like her career was crashing down in 1999. She didn’t get her dream job: a role on Barbara Walters’ daytime talk show “The View.”
“It was one of the most devastating days of my life,” Sanchez told Derek Blasberg for the WSJ.
Sanchez recalled instantly bonding with Walters during her audition for “The View,” though she did admit to clashing with original cast member Star Jones. Their disagreements may have cost her the role. Journalist Lisa Ling shared the coveted spot with Jones, Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar, and Walters, who personally called Sanchez to deliver the heartbreaking news that had her in tears for days.
Sanchez stated that Jones later apologized and that Walters continued to be a mentor.
6. Sánchez got fashion and life advice from Barbara Walters.
“She [Walters] really helped me with my career. Not only as someone I looked up to, but really guided me when I was up for ‘The View,’” Sanchez told WSJ Magazine after Walters died in December.
“Producers were trying to make me dress extra conservative and she saw me and said, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘They will try and make you ordinary. Don’t let them. Then, if you fail, at least you fail as yourself.’ I never forgot that.”
She found the silver lining in the career setback.
“It turned out to be a good thing because I wouldn’t have had Nikko,” Sanchez said of giving birth to her first child, who is now 21, with former NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she said.
7. Sánchez has written a children’s book inspired by a cool fly she saw one time.
This year, Sánchez will release her first children’s book, Flynn, The Fly Who Flew. The plotline landed literally in front of her.
“I was in the helicopter, and there was a fly,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, look, a fly who flew! This is such a great children’s book.’ And it stuck. Except now it’s a rocket [in the book].”
The book’s hero travels around Earth before — being reunited with his family.
“I hope that a reader, especially children, will see that if you wander and explore, you never know what you’ll discover. You shouldn’t stay in one place. Don’t be typical.”
He’s [Bezos] helping me with the book,” Sánchez revealed in the interview.
8. Bezos is launching Sánchez into space.
Sánchez is set to lead Blue Origin’s female-led mission to space in 2024.
“It’s going to be women who are making a difference in the world and who are impactful and have a message to send,” she says of the five women joining her, who won’t be revealed until nearer launch date.
One person who won’t be joining them is Bezos. “As much as he wants to go on this flight, I’m going to have to hold him back,” she says with a smile. “He’ll be cheering us all on from the sidelines.”
