When Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos step on to the red carpet at the Met Gala next month, it will mark their coronation as America’s new royalty.
Page Six has learned that the couple have been wooed by Anna Wintour and will attend the night.
It puts the Amazon king and his bride-to-be at the apex of celebrity and power, from Hollywood to Washington, DC, to Miami — and now to New York’s most glittering social event.
Their court is stuffed with power players including Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Barry Diller — who threw the couple an engagement party — and David Geffen, and aides from stylists to schedulers.
They dispense largesse in the form of a “courage and civility award,” and mingle with other royalty, including not just King Charles, but Prince William and his exiled brother Prince Harry. They even have a $500 million royal yacht, Koru, the largest sailing yacht in the world.
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Their court is stuffed with power players including Kris Jenner, Barry Diller — who threw the couple an engagement party — and David Geffen, and aides from stylists to schedulers. They even have a $500 million royal yacht, Koru, the largest sailing yacht in the world.
And this month their vast political power was recognized when they were invited to the White House by President Joe Biden for a state dinner for the prime minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, where they joined guests including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Apple’s Tim Cook.
Bezos, 60, declined to answer whether he will be donating to Biden’s campaign.
But his net worth of $197 billion means that he is now the Democrats’ target number one for cash.
A Washington, DC, source who has worked closely on fundraising with the White House said that when organizing state dinners, some spots are discreetly offered to people “supportive” of the president’s “fundraising endeavors.”
The source told Page Six of the invite, “If Bezos is not already supporting one of the super PACS it’s a strong indication that he’s being courted to support one of the super PACS.
“The question is whether he’ll become the Dems equivalent to the Koch brothers’ relationship with the Republicans.”
Billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David were for years seen as the Republicans’ most important donors. They founded Americans for Prosperity Action, have pumped their own cash into a host of conservative groups and have galvanized others to follow their lead.
Now Democrats sense they could hit a similar cash gusher.
Bezos — who stepped down as Amazon CEO in July 2021 — and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump have a feud that dates back to 2015, which resulted in Bezos joking that Trump should be sent to space.
Since then, Trump has called Bezos “Jeff Bozo” and said it would be a “great idea” if employees at the Bezos-owned Washington Post went on a “really long strike.”
Intriguingly, Sanchez is now one of the highest-profile Latinas in the country, a demographic that Democrats are concerned has been drifting towards the Republicans.
The couple recently moved to Florida — home to a large Latino community and historically a swing state, although recently firmly Republican.
Earlier this month, Bezos purchased a home for approximately $90 million in Indian Creek Village, Miami— colloquially known as Billionaire Bunker.
It’s the third property he owns in the exclusive neighborhood, where Tom Brady lives, alongside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. The couple will live in the home while the other two homes are torn down, according to Bloomberg.
Last month, Sanchez and Bezos honored Eva Longoria — a prominent Latina Democratic supporter who stumped for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — with the Bezos Courage and Civility Award and gave the actress a $50 million grant for her charitable endeavors.
“She once said superheroes and even everyday heroes don’t often look like her father, or sound like her Tio – her uncle. But they can and they should,” Sanchez wrote on Instagram.
If Bezos brought the scent of almost unlimited money to the White House, Sanchez, 54, added the glamor, clad in a $2,200 red lace and satin corset dress by Rasario which raised eyebrows for its generous display of cleavage.
ALICE + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet told Page Six, “Lauren has what I call BGE, best girl energy, these are the girls you want in your life.
“She’s truly the sexiest woman in the world – she owns it, why can’t she look sexy at the White House? I doubt anyone at the White House complained!”
The former TV reporter now has her own stylist, Kelly Johnson, who counts Catherine Zeta Jones, “Abbot Elementary” star Lisa Ann Walter, and actress Tamera Mowry among her clients.
Johnson also dressed Sanchez in a revealing red Lever Couture gown for the Vanity Fair Oscars party last month.
Sanchez’s glam squad frequently includes hair stylist Olivia Halpin and make-up artist Laura Ann who wrote online, “It’s an honor watching you and @jeffbezoschange the world!” She also turns to Jamie Sherrill — known as Nurse Jamie — for tweaks and treatments.
She also counts Hollywood power women Lydia Kives — married to Hollywood super-connector Michael Kives — and entrepreneur Veronica Smiley Grazer, married to producer Brian Grazer, as her best friends.
Sanchez has helped make-over Bezos into a character seemingly based on Tony Stark from Iron Man, while Bezos has introduced his fiancée to a string of significant power brokers.
He has a longtime friendship with Wintour, which dates back to 2012 when Amazon first sponsored the Met Gala, and Bezos, then honorary chairman, was joined by his then-wife Mackenzie Scott.
Back then, he took styling advice from Wintour, who advised him to team a pocket square with his Tom Ford tux.
Bezos then attended the gala solo in 2019 — weeks after it was revealed that he had been having an affair with Sanchez — and was divorcing Scott, the mother of his three sons and one daughter.
Sanchez soon also divorced her husband, Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell, with whom she has two children, Evan, 17, and Ella, 16. She also has a son, Nikko, 23, with former NFL player Tony Gonzalez.
In January 2020, the couple joined Wintour for a lengthy lunch at St Ambroeus in the West Village, and in September 2022, they attended a star-studded party at Wintour’s Manhattan townhouse alongside a slew of other A-listers like Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and singer Florence Welch.
Now Sanchez has her own relationship with Wintour — who as well as running the Met Gala, is one of the Democratic party’s most prominent media cheerleaders.
In June 2022, Sanchez had a power girls night out with Wintour and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abdein at Indochine in Noho, Manhattan, before they went to the Public Theater.
Then came a Vogue shoot with celeb snapper Annie Leibovitz in November.
She photographed Sanchez inside the 10,000 Year Clock, a subterranean project in West Texas — and posing with Bezos in a shoot that was dubbed “uncomfortable” and “cringe”.
In one photo, the lovebirds sat in the front seat of a retro van while Bezos wore a brown cowboy hat, black T-shirt and blue jeans while Sánchez flaunted her arm muscles in a tight white tank.
Unfortunately for the couple, several readers were not fans of their looks or the idea that “Vogue” was “glamorizing” the billionaire. Some even likened Sanchez to rocker Steven Tyler.
The slings and arrows, particularly online, have stepped up recently.
Last week, legendary New York restaurateur Keith McNally wrote online, “Does anybody else find Jeff Bezos’ New wife – Lauren Sanchez – ABSOLUTELY REVOLTING?’”
‘What an ugly and F***ing SMUG – LOOKING couple they make. Is this what having 1000 Billion dollars does to people?”
The response from the Bezos-Sanchez orbit was rapid.
Sanchez’s younger sister Elena Sanchez Blair retorted, “This is my sister you are talking about. A human being. One of the kindest, most loving people in the world. This is cruel and hurtful.”
Sanchez herself shrugged off the lèse-majesté by posting an inspirational speaker’s quote, “People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you.”
