Jeff Bezos and New Girlfriend Met When He Hired Her Company, Friends Say

Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez pose together at Amazon's Golden Globes party.
Getty Images

Friends say Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' romance with helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez took off after he hired her to film footage for his aerospace company, Blue Origin.

Jeff Bezos reportedly met his new girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, after hiring her company on a project. 

Sanchez, a former TV anchor on "Good Day L.A.," is an ace helicopter pilot who's flown in movies including Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk." According to friends, her romance with the Amazon founder began after her company was contracted to shoot aerial footage for his aerospace company, Blue Origin. 

"Lauren has a really bubbly personality and likes to have fun and go out,” a source told People magazine of Sanchez. “... On the face of it, she seems like the polar opposite of Bezos, but maybe that’s why he was so drawn to her."

Bezos announced his separation from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, last week just before the National Enquirer published an expose about Bezos and Sanchez. According to the tabloid, the two have allegedly been carrying on an affair for months. 

Bezos and MacKenzie met in 1992 when she worked for him at a hedge fund in New York City. They married the following year and then moved to Seattle so Bezos could start Amazon.

Though they struck a friendly tone in the statement announcing their split, a lot of money and assets are involved in the breakup. Bezos, the richest man in the world, is currently worth an estimated $140 billion. The divorce settlement could be the largest in history.

RELATED STORIES