It’s been a summer of major life milestones for Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who began the season by tying the knot with billionaire Jeff Bezos—and she is closing it out by bidding farewell to her son, Evan Whitesell, who has left the family home to start his freshman year at college.
Sanchez Bezos, 55, who wed her Amazon founder beau in a multiday event in Venice, Italy back in June, took to Instagram to mark the latest moment in her motherhood journey, admitting that she was left “heartbroken” at watching her 19-year-old son fly the nest.
“Dropped off Evan at college today,” she wrote, while sharing a picture of the teenager assembling furniture in his new dorm room. “18 years of early mornings, late night snacks, and family dinners … and then there he was building his own dorm cabinet.
“A small thing but in that moment, I saw the start of his next chapter. Proud, heartbroken, grateful.”
The update comes eight months after Sanchez Bezos proudly revealed on Instagram that her son had been accepted by the University of Miami, where she hinted that the teenager had plans to study business at the institution’s Herbert Business School.
Lauren Sanchez Bezos admitted that she was left “heartbroken” after dropping off her son, Evan, for his first year in college.
Sanchez Bezos and her new husband have seven children between them and have worked to create a cohesive blended family throughout their relationship, regularly stepping out for dinner dates with their kids.
The former TV news anchor is mother to Evan and daughter Ella, 17, whom she shares with ex-husband Patrick Whitesell; as well as son Nikko Gonzalez, 24, whom she welcomed with her former boyfriend, NFL star Tony Gonzalez.
Meanwhile Bezos has four children with his former spouse, MacKenzie Scott—three sons and a daughter who was adopted from China; however, only their eldest son, Preston, has had his name shared publicly.
It appears that the newlywed couple carefully timed their weekslong honeymoon to ensure that they could be present when Evan headed off to college, having been spotted partying the night away in Ibiza just days before moving him into his Miami dorm room.
Fortunately for Sanchez Bezos, her son is not straying far from the family nest—which is located on the exclusive enclave of Indian Creek Island, regularly referred to as Miami’s “Billionaire Bunker,” where they count the likes of Tom Brady, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as neighbors.
Though Bezos had spent many years based out of the tony Seattle suburb of Medina, he and Sanchez Bezos announced in 2023 that they were moving their primary residence to Florida, explaining at the time that the Amazon founder wished to be closer to his parents.
However, in February 2024, it was revealed that Bezos enjoyed another perk as a result of his relocation: saving hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes.
Sanchez Bezos and her husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, are lucky enough to live near to the University of Miami, where Evan is heading, having moved their primary residence from Washington to Florida in 2023.
The couple owns three properties on the exclusive enclave of Indian Creek Island, having amassed the homes for the total price of $234 million.
According to a report by CNBC, the businessman stands to save “at least $610 million” in taxes that he would have had to pay if he were still living full time in Washington state.
Still, Bezos has built himself quite the impressive compound on Indian Creek Island, where he is said to own three separate dwellings that he snapped up over several years.
The first two properties—an adjacent pair of mansions that sit on the west side of the island—were bought in 2023 for $68 million and $79 million, respectively, according to property records.
Then, in 2024, Bezos made a surprise third property purchase on “Billionaire Bunker,” buying an $87 million six-bedroom mansion that sits some distance from his other two homes on the island.
All three deals were conducted via separate trusts, property records show, and only one of the homes had been publicly listed for sale before being snapped up by Bezos, with two of the deals taking place off market.
According to reports, the third property will be used by Bezos and his now-wife as their primary residence while workers raze the other two homes to make way for the couple’s dream marital compound.
It’s unclear whether they will hold onto the third abode when this work is completed.
Bezos still owns several properties in the Seattle suburb of Medina.
He also boasts a home in Beverly Hills.
However the couple has plenty of other homes in their expansive portfolio that they can reside in if they need a break from their temporary Florida residence—including a collection of homes that Bezos still owns in Medina.
Four years after he founded Amazon, Bezos spent $10 million, along with now-ex-wife Scott, buying up two homes that sit on a 5-acre plot in the town of Hunts Point. In 2010, the duo reportedly spent $28 million to extensively renovate the estate, which boasts 310 feet of private shoreline and a private boathouse.
To maximize space (and privacy), Bezos also purchased an adjacent property that same year—a 24,000-square-foot mansion that was reportedly listed for $53 million. It is unclear whether the Amazon CEO paid that hefty sum or managed to snag a discount.
That home would ultimately serve as the business mogul’s primary residence for the next decade until 2023, when he announced his move to Florida.
Though he still holds the keys to much of his Seattle property portfolio, Bezos did offload one home in April of this year, selling it off for an astonishing $63 million, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Bezos made a very hefty profit on the sale of the 9,240-square-foot home, having purchased it for $37.5 million in 2019, the same year he divorced his ex-wife.
The billionaire also boasts additional homes in Washington, DC, where he purchased a $23 million estate back in 2017, as well as a pied-à-terre in New York City that is made up of multiple apartment units, a mansion in Los Angeles, and an enormous estate in Maui, HI.
When they want to escape city life and be at one with nature, however, they head south—not to Florida, but to Texas, where Bezos owns a sprawling 400,000-acre ranch that he purchased in 2004.