Lauren Sánchez: The Tragic Truth About Jeff Bezos' Fiancée

Lauren Sánchez might now be known best for her relationship with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, but she lived an entire life of ups and downs before all this fame. Born on December 19, 1969, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sánchez worked her way up in the media industry, starting as a desk assistant at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles before rising to prominence as a news anchor and entertainment reporter. 

Sánchez's work spanned various networks, including Fox Sports Net and UPN 13 News, where she won an Emmy for her work as an anchor. She later became one of the first Latina news anchors in Los Angeles and eventually co-hosted the long-running morning show "Good Day LA." Of her start in the journalism industry, she told "Extra" (via the Daily Mail), "When I first became a reporter, I did it because there was no one else I thought that looked like me."

Though she found success in her own right as a news anchor and media mogul, Sánchez's path to Bezos was fraught with plenty of difficulties and disappointments as well. From struggles with learning disabilities to failed career aspirations and beyond, these hardships have no doubt shaped her into the woman she is today. Sánchez's life story reveals all the sacrifices, challenges, and heartbreak she's endured along the way.

As a child, Lauren Sánchez struggled due to undiagnosed dyslexia: a condition that affects reading, writing, and spelling abilities. It's one of the most common learning difficulties in America, impacting about 15-20% of the population. Early intervention is key to overcoming it — something Sánchez was not lucky enough to receive. Awareness of dyslexia was limited during Sánchez's childhood, and many children like her went undiagnosed for years.

In an Instagram post from April 2024, she revealed that her childhood struggles deeply affected her self-confidence. "Growing up I didn't know I had dyslexia. It made reading so difficult which made me feel really behind the other kids. To be blunt, I was scared. Later, my community college professor changed the trajectory of my life by getting me tested for dyslexia," she wrote. Even though it came late, getting a diagnosis allowed Sánchez to better understand her challenges and take the necessary steps to manage them. She eventually pursued a successful career in journalism: an extraordinary feat for someone who once feared words.

After her dyslexia diagnosis in college, Lauren Sánchez learned how to manage her learning disability and began advocating for others like her who might have been overlooked by the education system. This mission took on an even more personal note when her son, Nikko, was also diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age. "He was in second grade and he didn't want to go to school. He was embarrassed. It was tough," she recalled to Newsweek.

Her children's book, "The Fly Who Flew to Space," is inspired by her experiences raising a child with dyslexia as well as her own journey toward self-acceptance. The book delivers a message of resilience and embracing your strengths, focusing on the idea that any challenge can be overcome with the right amount of support and understanding. Sánchez's hope to help others struggling with dyslexia is doing more than just shaping her son's future: It's also working to change the narrative for millions of children who face similar difficulties.

While Lauren Sánchez's children's book was meant to inspire others, it became the subject of a legal battle when her former yoga teacher, Alanna Zabel, accused Sánchez of stealing her book idea. Per legal documents procured by Page Six, Zabel alleged that she shared her unpublished book concept, "Dharma Kitty Goes to Mars," with Sánchez in confidence. According to Zabel, both stories featured similar plot points (such as a space journey), but Sánchez allegedly tweaked the theme to focus on dyslexia. 

Despite these accusations, Sánchez insists that her book is rooted in her own experiences with dyslexia. "Writing this book has been a deeply personal journey for me," she said in a Collective Book Studio Q&A. "This story started as a simple idea during a flight with my kids, and evolved into something I wanted to share with the world." While the lawsuit received plenty of media attention, no official ruling has been reached as of this writing. Sánchez has never commented on the suit, either.

Before her career in journalism took off, Sánchez had her sights set on becoming a flight attendant. However, her dreams were dashed when, at age 18, she was told she didn't meet the weight requirements for the job. In the early days of commercial flight, airlines often marketed their flight attendants based on their appearance, requiring them to abide by strict beauty standards and unfair weight limits. Weighing 121 pounds at the time, Sánchez told The Wall Street Journal that she lost the job because the airline required its flight attendants to weigh under 115 pounds. 

This awful, unjust rejection crushed her dreams ... but it didn't keep her down for long. In 2011, Sánchez earned her pilot's license for planes, and she passed the harrowing test to become a certified helicopter pilot five years later. Of that experience, she told The Hollywood Reporter, "I literally cried — and I don't cry." Now, she encourages women to pursue aviation. "It was an incredible experience because I think only 3% of helicopter pilots were women at the time," she told People. She often speaks about her love for flying, showing her former disappointment is now a new passion. Today, Sánchez continues to be a fierce advocate for women in aviation, hoping to keep that unfortunate statistic ticking upward. 

Before Lauren Sánchez landed at what she does for a living today, being turned down for a flight attendant job wasn't the only career rejection she experienced. In 1999, Sánchez auditioned to become a co-host on "The View," hoping it would be her big break into television journalism. Despite a good rapport with Barbara Walters, Sánchez didn't land the role. (It instead went to Lisa Ling.) The rejection was a tough blow for Sánchez, who had been hoping "The View" would catapult her career in television to new heights. "It was one of the most devastating days of my life," she told The Wall Street Journal.

Shortly after the audition, she welcomed her first son Nikko with former NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez, one of the many famous faces of Sánchez's star-studded love life before Jeff Bezos. Although she was initially disappointed at missing out on "The View" gig, she surely had to feel grateful for being able to focus on motherhood during that time instead. (In a lesser-known twist, she later auditioned a second time for "The View," but was once again passed over in favor of someone else.) Despite these setbacks, Sánchez eventually found great success in media and business on her own terms.