While I think Lauren Sanchez is kind of a vapid golddigger, I have to admit, I kind of hate-respect her. She secured the bag and then some. She carried on an affair with Jeff Bezos when they were both married to other people, then when the National Enquirer exposed them, they just divorced their spouses, became official together and never looked back. Bezos and Sanchez still haven’t gotten married and it doesn’t sound like they will any time soon, but they live together and they do everything together and she clearly believes that what’s his is hers. Lauren was interviewed by WSJ. Magazine and this piece is bonkers! She’s very confessional, gregarious and over-the-top. I kind of understand why she would end up the mistress-turned-official of the richest man in the world.

She pilots helicopters & planes: “This is one of the only places I feel entirely in control.” She formed Black Ops Aviation, one of the first female-owned aerial film and production companies with a focus across television and film, in 2016, when she realized she was one of only a few women doing the job. “I don’t know why more women don’t do it,” she says. Sánchez often pilots Bezos and their families around the world and tries to get in the cockpit at least three times a week to stay up to date on instruments.

She & Bezos do everything together: “He stole my trainer!” she says of Wes Okerson, who pops up occasionally on her Instagram. “Jeff is extremely dedicated to his workouts. I mean, you have no idea. He really puts in the work.”

Their life together: Sánchez and Bezos, who respectively have three children and four children from their prior relationships, share a historic Beverly Hills house built by Hollywood founding father Jack Warner, which Bezos bought from media mogul David Geffen for a then-record-setting $165 million in 2020. (The couple has other homes, including one in Seattle, where Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and another in Washington, D.C., where the Washington Post, which he bought for $250 million in 2013, is based.) “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 says. “We are the Brady Bunch!”

Working with her boyfriend on the Bezos Award for Courage & Civility: “Jeff and I think [civility] is what’s missing in the world right now. Everything’s driven by negativity or conflict. When we called [Dolly Parton] two weeks before [the award announcement], she goes, ‘Is this real? Did you say $100 million?’ She couldn’t believe it.”

How Bezos will give away his money before he dies: “Jeff has always told me, since I’ve known him, that he’s going to give the majority of his money to philanthropy….[It wasn’t] surprising to me at all. He just never felt the need to have to say it.

Working together with Bezos: “It’s the greatest experience I’ve ever had. I’ve always had a career very separate from my partner. I think now that I can work with my partner and be with him all the time…. We love to be together and we love to work together. He’s helping me with the book. He’s getting his pilot’s license. We fly together. We work out together. We’re together all the time.

The best business advice Bezos gave her: “Living with Jeff is like having a master class every day. What he’s really taught me a lot about is management. Biggest pieces of advice? I hold a lot of meetings and I would talk first in a meeting and he goes, “No, no, no. You’re the boss. You talk last. You let everyone else talk so that they don’t get swayed by your opinion.” Keep meetings under an hour if you can. I don’t know how he does it; he can read documents for hours. Another thing he taught me is: If you’re going to have a meeting, have the person running the meeting write a document about what you’re going to discuss and why. And it can’t be more than six pages.

She’s a gossip: “It’s hard [not to talk about my relationship]. I’m a very open person. I talk a lot. I like to tell all my secrets. I have had to learn that I can’t do that. It’s a good lesson. [I used to] say stuff to people and no one would care! [I catch myself] All the time. I want to tell everyone everything. I want everyone to be my friend! I learned how to not give the location of where I’m at. I can’t Instagram things that I normally would before. I have to be more private, a little more controlled, and that’s fine.

Sunday mornings with Jeff Bezos: “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.

[From WSJ. Magazine]

See what I mean? I sort of like her. Well, I don’t hate her. She seems like fun, she seems like she’s terrifically indiscreet and she loves having a good time. It also sounds like Bezos never really sat down and said “I’m giving away all of this money, babe.” Maybe she knows she just has to ride this to the finish line and have a lot of fun doing it. They criss-cross across the country and the globe, they live in crazy mansions, he makes pancakes from a Betty Crocker recipe… not a bad life.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.