{"id":310632,"date":"2025-11-24T10:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310632\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T10:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:27:14","slug":"how-jeff-bezos-and-lauren-sanchez-set-their-sights-on-becoming-the-new-posh-and-becks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310632\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez set their sights on becoming the new Posh and Becks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On the first Monday in May, the biggest names in fashion, film and music will ascend the stairs of New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the iconic venue\u2019s annual gala. And presiding over them all, alongside Vogue stalwart Anna Wintour<\/a>, will be a couple whose presence on the rarefied guest list might have raised eyebrows just a few years ago: Jeff Bezos<\/a> and Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, US Vogue confirmed that the multi-billionaire Amazon founder, currently the third richest man in the world, along with his TV host-turned-philanthropist wife, will serve as the lead sponsors<\/a> for the 2026 Met Gala<\/a>. They\u2019ll also fund the accompanying exhibition at the Met\u2019s Costume Institute (publishing house Cond\u00e9 Nast and fashion brand Saint Lauren are providing financial support, too). <\/p>\n

This venture for the newlyweds, who tied the knot back in June <\/a>in a staggeringly lavish \u2013 or eye-wateringly ostentatious \u2013 Venetian extravaganza, won\u2019t come cheap. Last year\u2019s Gala cost around $6 million, although that sum is small change when your estimated net worth sits somewhere around the $250 billion mark. \u201cBezos buys his wife the party of the year,\u201d read one disparaging headline from the Daily Beast. Social media users, meanwhile, inevitably joked about attendees ordering their outfits via Amazon\u2019s next-day Prime delivery. <\/p>\n

But this latest move shows how seriously the pair have jointly set their sights on the fashion industry, and the celebrity circuit at large. Wintour famously gets the final say on the gala\u2019s invitees, but as sponsors of the event often referred to as \u201cthe Oscars of fashion\u201d, the pair will inevitably have some influence over who gets the call-up (does that mean everyone onboard the Blue Origin rocket during S\u00e1nchez\u2019s recent foray into space travel is guaranteed a spot?). And S\u00e1nchez will surely have her pick of designers queuing up to dress her for the night. <\/p>\n

Their Met Gala takeover is just the latest sign that the couple, whose joint ethos could probably be loosely summed up as \u201cmore is more, and then some\u201d, are not content with simply being jaw-droppingly wealthy. Instead, they are seeking the cultural cachet that comes with infiltrating fashion\u2019s upper echelons, and the reflected glory that comes with hanging out with the A-list.<\/p>\n

While their fellow Silicon Valley couples are content to wield power behind the scenes, the Bezos-Sach\u00e9zes, it seems, are vying for the spotlight. It\u2019s as if they\u2019re trying to emulate David and Victoria Beckham, a stylish power duo with lucrative business interests across a whole range of fields, rather than, say, Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all a far cry from the 61-year-old Bezos\u2019s early days as an e-commerce pioneer. The one-time hedge fund manager launched Amazon in a rented garage in Washington in 1994 and, for more than two decades, he and his first wife MacKenzie Scott opted for a low-key lifestyle described by a family friend as \u201cabnormally normal\u201d. His reputation was that of a publicity-shy tech geek, someone who wasn\u2019t exactly flash: in 2013, Bezos was reportedly still driving a 1997 Honda, because it was \u201ca perfectly good car\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Bezos<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Bezos was once described as having an ‘abnormally normal’ lifestyle (AFP via Getty)<\/p>\n

There were signs, however, that he might aspire to a more glamorous milieu. In 2012, he attended the Met Gala for the first time with Scott, when Amazon sponsored the event. A few years later, in an early sign of his designs on Hollywood, he hosted his own starry party for Manchester by the Sea, which would become Amazon\u2019s first Academy Award-nominated movie.<\/p>\n

That night would put him on a path heading far away from \u201cabnormally normal\u201d. On the guest list was Patrick Whitesell, CEO of the Hollywood talent agency Endeavour, who reportedly introduced Bezos to his wife\u2026 Lauren S\u00e1nchez. Back then, she was best known as a TV host on Fox, but she\u2019d recently become a keen helicopter pilot; she was also about to launch Black Ops Aviation, a production company specialising in aerial filming. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Bezos hired Black Ops to shoot footage for the space tech company Blue Origin, his passion project. Soon, the limelight-averse founder and the showbiz interviewer found themselves becoming the story. At the start of 2019, Bezos and Scott confirmed that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage; in the happy-clappy parlance of celebrity break-up statements, they promised to \u201ccontinue our shared life as friends\u201d. <\/p>\n

But the following day, the National Enquirer ran a story alleging that Bezos and S\u00e1nchez were embroiled in an affair (sources close to the couple, meanwhile, argued that their respective marriages had been over long before their relationship began). The tabloid also published texts between them: \u201cI love you, alive girl\u201d was somehow one of the less mortifying messages from him to her. <\/p>\n

Bezos, meanwhile, hit back by accusing the Enquirer\u2019s publisher, American Media Inc, of \u201cextortion and blackmail\u201d for threatening to publish intimate photos of the pair (in a statement at the time, AMI said it \u201cbelieve[d] fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr Bezos\u201d). <\/p>\n

Bezos\u2019s personal life was now tabloid fodder; no longer was he simply someone you might read about in the business pages, or in a tech magazine profile. Thanks to speedy divorce proceedings, he and Scott\u2019s marriage officially ended in April; S\u00e1nchez also finalised her split from Whitesell, and the new couple started to embark on a series of paparazzi-friendly vacations around the world. <\/p>\n

In 2021, Bezos stepped down as Amazon\u2019s chief executive, giving him more time to fully embrace the super-rich lifestyle. He\u2019d soon hire celebrity personal trainer Wes Okerson to overhaul his image from weedy tech guy to beefed-up Broligarch, and reportedly dropped around $500 million on his custom superyacht, Koru (a boat so massive it comes with its own support yacht). He and S\u00e1nchez were joined on board by a load of celebrity pals, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Usher, Katy Perry and her then-fianc\u00e9 Orlando Bloom; S\u00e1nchez, it seemed, was introducing him to a whole new social circle. <\/p>\n

\"S\u00e1nchez\u2019s<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez\u2019s inauguration outfit made headlines back in January (Getty)<\/p>\n

The yacht was also the backdrop for the couple\u2019s 2023 engagement, after Bezos hid a (massive) diamond ring under S\u00e1nchez\u2019s pillow while they were travelling on Koru. \u201cWhen he opened the box, I think I blacked out a bit,\u201d S\u00e1nchez revealed in a US Vogue interview published a few months later. This profile, accompanied by a lavish Annie Leibovitz photoshoot, was one of the first signs that the couple were winning over fashion world tastemaker Wintour, who has always had a keen eye for strategic alliances (sorry, friendships). <\/p>\n

In the piece, S\u00e1nchez positioned herself and Bezos as a sort of super-rich two-for-one, working in tandem. \u201cWe always look at each other and go, \u2018We\u2019re the team,\u2019\u201d she told the magazine. \u201cSo everything\u2019s shared.\u201d They also talked up their philanthropic efforts, such as the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion commitment to tackling climate change (the question of whether the couple\u2019s superyacht and its significant carbon footprint might sit uneasily alongside those efforts remained unasked). <\/p>\n

A few months later, Bezos and S\u00e1nchez attended the 2024 Met Gala; according to reports, Wintour helped select the latter\u2019s Oscar de la Renta gown, due to concerns that S\u00e1nchez might opt for something akin to the sparkling, plunging and semi-sheer number she\u2019d worn to a White House dinner. <\/p>\n

Indeed, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s route to fashion acceptance feels a little like the one taken by her friend Kim Kardashian about a decade earlier: the nod of approval from Wintour, the Vogue interview, the subtle image overhaul, the front-row appearances. The transformation, though, has probably been less dramatic in S\u00e1nchez\u2019s case: she still loves a plunging neckline, as demonstrated by her headline-grabbing bra top worn at Donald Trump\u2019s presidential inauguration in January.<\/p>\n

\"S\u00e1nchez<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez and Bezos during their wedding festivities in Venice (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s presence at the inauguration, sitting near Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, also seemed like the start of a new political pivot, for Bezos especially, who once voiced a fear that Trump would be a \u201cthreat to democracy\u201d. Trump, for his part, hasn\u2019t always been overly enamoured of Bezos either; he once referred to him, inevitably, as \u201cJeff Bozo\u201d. But in 2024, The Washington Post, the paper Bezos bought in 2013, refused to back Kamala Harris\u2019s presidential campaign, reportedly at the owner\u2019s request. Whether his new alignment with Maga is an actual political shift or pure business-minded pragmatism remains to be seen; perhaps S\u00e1nchez\u2019s friendship with Trump\u2019s daughter Ivanka helped smooth things over too.<\/p>\n

Ivanka was one of the high-profile guests at the Bezos-S\u00e1nchez wedding in June, alongside the likes of DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, actor Sydney Sweeney and a handful of Kardashians. It was an event that played out with all the fanfare and media scrutiny of a royal wedding, although the couple\u2019s decision to get married in Venice stoked the ire of environmental activists and locals fighting over-tourism; they later claimed a victory after Bezos reportedly had to change venues at the last minute due to planned protests. <\/p>\n

Another gushing Vogue profile documented the occasion, revealing S\u00e1nchez\u2019s lacy Dolce & Gabbana gown to the world. Soon after, reports began to swirl that Bezos was considering buying Cond\u00e9 Nast, the publishing house behind Vogue and GQ, as a wedding gift for his new bride. But sources close to Bezos shut down the rumours, and the house\u2019s longtime owners, the Newhouse family, said their titles weren\u2019t for sale. Purchasing a print media company in the year 2025 would have arguably been a strange decision for a forward-thinker like Bezos, anyway; he already has the Post in his portfolio to tick off the \u201clegacy media\u201d box. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The couple at Paris Fashion Week in October (Getty)<\/p>\n

Whether or not she\u2019s secretly harbouring ambitions to be the next Wintour, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s charm offensive on the fashion industry has continued. In October, she was a front-row fixture at Paris Fashion Week, attending shows for the likes of Dior and Chanel in archival vintage looks that reflected her growing industry clout. To curate this Paris wardrobe, she worked with in-demand stylist Molly Dickson, whose clients have included Lana del Rey, Stranger Things actor Sadie Sink and S\u00e1nchez\u2019s pal Sweeney (could she have put them in touch?) <\/p>\n

Indeed, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s strong ties with Tinseltown could also prove useful for another Amazon venture: the brand\u2019s streaming service. Amazon gained creative control of the James Bond franchise earlier this year, and Bezos is reportedly keen for Sweeney to appear as a leading lady in a future 007 instalment. It\u2019s not hard to imagine the couple wooing acting talent by giving them the hard sell over dinner at their Miami mega-home.<\/p>\n

What else is on the cards for the pair? Like so many other Silicon Valley types, Bezos is clearly fascinated by the quest to make getting old and frail a thing of the past (if you can afford it). He\u2019s thought to be a major investor in Altos Labs, a biotech startup that aims to reverse the ageing process by rejuvenating cells. <\/p>\n

And, of course, there\u2019s Blue Origin. The fact that S\u00e1nchez and pals\u2019 girlboss-y jaunt to the Karman Line, the boundary of space, was roundly mocked earlier this year is unlikely to have made any difference to their future plans (however funny the memes may have been). Like them, loathe them, or just find them a bit, well, cringe, this is a power couple whose influence is only going to grow \u2013 til it reaches truly stratospheric levels. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-310632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}