Inside Lauren Sánchez Bezos' Lengthy Relationship History

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Lauren Sánchez Bezos certainly has many strings to her bow. She's anchored everything from "Fox 11 News at Ten" to "The View," written a New York Times best-selling children's book, and is even a licensed pilot and aviation company founder! And let's not forget her philanthropic work, her beginnings as a sports reporter, and how she joined the all-female crew on board the controversial Blue Origin NS-31 flight to space. But, of course, she will always now be most renowned for marrying the richest man in the world.

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder with a reported net worth of $239 billion, wasn't Sánchez Bezos' first rodeo, however. Indeed, the philanthropist had previously been married, twice broken off engagements, and dated a string of high-flyers and go-getters before finding "the one." From her humble high school romances to her flashy all-star nuptials, here's a look at Sánchez Bezos' eventful romantic history.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos' reputation for being a heartbreaker seemed to begin in her high school years at Albuquerque's Del Norte High. "She could pretty much get who she wanted," claimed Ian Smelser in an interview with The Times several decades after becoming one of the philanthropist's first boyfriends.

"Boys found Wendy attractive and the girls were either drawn to her or pushed away — mostly out of jealousy," he added. And if you're wondering who on Earth Wendy is, this is Sánchez Bezos' middle name, and the name she was best known as while growing up. Smelser wasn't the only football jock that the future TV reporter got romantically involved with as a teenager, either.

"So many high school girls, especially if they're dating the football star, can't handle the conversation," Ian Wade noted to the same newspaper. "But I remember having lots of in-depth conversations with Wendy about my dreams and aspirations, and she would truly listen." Sadly, their puppy love wasn't meant to be, and the young couple split up at one of Sánchez Bezos' earliest workplaces, a waterpark named The Beach.

So, it appears as though Lauren Sánchez Bezos has always had a taste for the rich, the older, and the powerful. Long before she married Amazon's multi-billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, the former broadcaster dated a member of one of Las Vegas' most prominent families, the Maloofs.

While at college, Sánchez Bezos entered into a relationship with Gavin Maloof, the heir to a property fortune who'd go on to found skateboarding competition the Maloof Cup, own a stake in hockey team the Vegas Golden Knights, and appear as a guest judge on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

According to The Times, Sánchez Bezos began stepping out with Maloof, a man 13 years her senior, when she was aged 19. And it seems like her old classmates wouldn't have been too surprised at this development, for the philanthropist had previously been voted as her high school's biggest flirt. When asked what his attraction to the student was, several decades later, Maloof answered, "Because she was hot. She's still hot. She's always been hot." The entrepreneur had nothing but kind things to say, adding, "Wendy always said I'm going to be a somebody. Boy, was she right."

According to Page Six, Lauren Sánchez Bezos bagged her first "celebrity" boyfriend while still in college. But Rory Markas, being 13 years older, was more recognizable for his dulcet tones than his face.

As a play-by-play sportscaster, Markas covered the men's basketball and baseball teams from the University of Southern California, the Pacific Coast League's Vancouver Canadians and Salt Lake City Gulls, and most famously, the MLB's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, where he developed his signature call of "Just another Halo victory!"

It was while interning at an LA television network during her college years that Sánchez Bezos met, and then entered into a relationship with, the older Markas. The pair reportedly went on to get engaged before the former, keen to focus on her flourishing career elsewhere, called things off. Sadly, following several health complications, including a brain blood clot, Markas died in 2010 of a heart attack at the age of 54. Of course, Sánchez Bezos is no stranger to tragedy herself. 

Having dated someone who reports on the world of major league sports, Lauren Sánchez Bezos then began stepping out with someone who actively played in it. In fact, Denver Broncos star Anthony Miller even put a ring on it before things went decidedly sour.

The pair were first introduced to each other at the Super Bowl of 1996, a period when Sánchez Bezos was a roving reporter for Fox Sports News. A few years later, Miller popped the question, although in an interview with the Daily Mail, this appeared to be under duress. "I kind of gave her [the ring] because she bugged me about getting married," the former wide receiver moaned. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the couple never actually made it down the aisle, and in 1999, they went their separate ways.

Miller claims that Sánchez Bezos' wandering eye was the root cause. "I couldn't really trust her. She gets around. She was cheating on me with other guys. I found out when I looked in her diary, and I found out more after I broke up with her." But according to insiders, the one-time NFL regular was the person doing the cheating, and with a stripper to boot.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos' relationship with NFL star Anthony Miller might have ended in acrimonious circumstances. But that didn't appear to stop the one-time reporter, who's been repeatedly subjected to countless scandalous rumors over the years, from cozying up to another professional sportsman.

According to a Page Six insider, shortly after her split with the football player, Sánchez Bezos enjoyed a brief dalliance with Derek Fisher, the Los Angeles Lakers veteran who later became coach of the New York Knicks. Although the pair have never officially confirmed they were once an item, they were pictured with their arms around each other at an event in 2002.

Like Sánchez Bezos', Fisher's love life has also given the tabloids plenty to chew over. After divorcing his wife of 11 years, Candace Fisher, in 2016, the NBA icon popped the question to Gloria Govan, the "Basketball Wives" star who was previously married to small forward Matt Barnes. And if rumors are to be believed, the two former teammates once got into a physical fight over their shared love interest.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos added another sporting conquest to her list in the early '00s when she began dating Tony Gonzalez, the veteran tight end who enjoyed 17 seasons in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Falcons. In fact, the pair even became parents together following the birth of their son Nikko in 2002.

Sadly, the couple split soon after amid various allegations of infidelity. But over time, they managed to patch their differences up and developed a much less volatile platonic relationship instead. Not only did they start spending Thanksgiving together with their respective new families, but Sánchez Bezos also invited Gonzalez and his wife Tobie to her wedding to Jeff Bezos.

"I'm not saying that being best friends with your ex is the end-all be-all," Sánchez Bezos told The Wall Street Journal about her set-up with Gonzalez. "But you do need to be able to communicate. I'm so proud of it. My son looks at me, and he's like, 'I'm the luckiest boy in the world because I can have Thanksgiving with both my parents and they don't have to be married.'"

After a string of unsuccessful relationships with individuals in the sporting field, Lauren Sánchez Bezos decided to try and switch things up a little in 2002, this time aiming for romantic bliss with a man who plied his trade in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

Henry Simmons was midway through his six-season stint on "NYPD Blue" as Detective Baldwin Jones when he first met Sánchez Bezos. And the actor, who later went on to portray a very different type of enforcer, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, in the superhero show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," didn't waste much time in making things official. Within the space of just five months, he'd asked for her hand in marriage.

Sánchez Bezos said "yes," of course, and the couple also ended up moving in together at a place in California's Manhattan Beach, regularly engaging in public displays of affection on the red carpet, too. But once again, the licensed pilot never got the chance to say, "I do," as in 2004, the pair called it a day. According to rumors, their break-up overlapped with a new romance that would finally see Sánchez Bezos get to play the bride.

After several broken engagements, Lauren Sánchez Bezos finally made it to the altar in 2005 when she wed talent agent Patrick Whitesell. And as you'd expect from both parties' professions, the event was a star-studded affair.

Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Jennifer Garner were just a few of the A-listers who attended the ceremony, with Hugh Jackman performing "Mack the Knife" at the reception too. "You could tell they're in love," wedding planner Marianne Weiman-Nelson told People (via E! Online) about the happy couple who also treated guests to a rumba choreographed by Mary Murphy of "So You Think You Can Dance," the talent show Sánchez Bezos had been appointed to host that same year.

"I'd always ask my friends, 'How do you know it's the right one?'" Sánchez Bezos, who's recently been subjected to rumors of botched lip filler procedures, revealed in a chat with the same publication. "Then when I met Patrick, I told them, 'I so get it.'" A year later, the newlyweds became proud parents to son Evan, and then in 2008, they welcomed daughter Eleanor into the world. Sadly, their love story didn't get a happy ending.

In 2019, after 14 years of marriage, Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Patrick Whitesell sadly headed for the divorce courts. TMZ reported that the pair's properties and assets were split up per the prenuptial agreement that the former had signed her name to before getting hitched. But while there appeared to be little drama over their financial affairs, it was a different story when it came to the reason behind the divorce.

Rumors soon emerged that a third party had been involved, namely Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who just happens to be one of the richest men in the world. And with the latter also finalizing his separation from ex-wife Mackenzie Scott just 24 hours after Sánchez Bezos' divorce papers went through, the tabloids started to put forward the theory that there had once again been a little overlapping going on.

"Patrick was totally blindsided," a source claimed to Us Weekly about this alleged pre-marital dalliance. "He had no idea how serious the affair was or how long it was going on for," the insider added before revealing that Sánchez Bezos and Whitesell "were having problems in their marriage for the last year," but "were trying to work things out." To make matters worse, the former had been introduced to Bezos via the latter's job.

According to reports, Lauren Sánchez Bezos first met her second husband, Jeff Bezos, through her first. In fact, Patrick Whitesell, who'd worked with the Amazon founder on Academy Award favorite "Manchester by the Sea," had recommended that the pair collaborate on a documentary about the space program Blue Origin.

Sánchez Bezos and Bezos' relationship became public knowledge in dramatic circumstances in February 2019 following a highly explosive dispute with the National Enquirer. The tabloid alleged (via the Daily Mail) that the pair had been seeing each other for eight months — while still officially married to their former partners — with the multi-billionaire apparently "whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet, sending her raunchy messages and erotic selfies, and having secret rendezvous at palatial private estates."

Bezos didn't take this invasion of his privacy lying down, however, and soon fired back with a lengthy Medium post addressed to David Pecker, the magazine's CEO, in which he accused him of blackmail and extortion. "I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," the entrepreneur wrote before revealing that the National Enquirer had warned it would publish personal pictures and text messages if he didn't stop looking into how such evidence had been acquired. Of course, there are signs that the pair's romance isn't always as spicy as it seems. 

However and whenever Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos got together, the pair soon proved they were in it for the long haul when they got engaged in 2023. And as you'd expect from a man worth billions of dollars, the ring didn't come cheap — reports suggest the pear diamond type chosen by the Amazon founder cost a whopping $2 million. The bride-to-be even claims she "blacked out" on receiving it.

As you'd also expect, the wedding ceremony held in Venice two years later also didn't come cheap. According to the Veneto regional government's president, Luca Zaia, the whole shebang could have set the newlyweds back a cool $55.6 million. And when you learn of just how extravagant the happy occasion was, that eye-watering sum almost seems a bargain.

Indeed, Bezos and Sánchez Bezos hired no fewer than 30 water taxis, 90 personal planes, and every room of five five-star hotels for the occasion, with the main celebrations staged at the 12th-century naval yard known as the Arsenale. The wedding ring cost a serious chunk of change, too. The Kardashians, Sydney Sweeney, and Usher were just a handful of the A-listers who were invited to the wedding of the year. Remarkably, the bride reportedly considered it low-key. "She wants to do a very classic and elegant wedding," Stefano Gabbana, an Italian fashion designer, remarked to Vogue. "She didn't want to do something very flashing or bling bling."