Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez were photographed holding hands as they left the Alba restaurant in Venice after an evening out on Saturday, appearing relaxed and affectionate amid a crowd of photographers.
The couple, who exchanged vows in June during a multi-day luxury event in Venice that was widely reported as a high-profile celebration, were seen departing the restaurant together with Bezos leading Sánchez through the gathering of onlookers and press. Sánchez wore a plunging brown dress with floral and fringe detailing, carrying a gold clutch and wearing tanned stilettos and jewelry. Bezos wore a navy polo shirt, black trousers and blue-lens sunglasses.
Sánchez, a television personality who gained fame as an entertainment reporter and news anchor, and the Amazon founder have been a visible couple since their relationship became public in early 2019. Their partnership was first exposed by a U.S. publication in January 2019, a development that preceded both Bezos's divorce from his then-wife of more than 25 years, MacKenzie Scott, and Sánchez’s later divorce from Patrick Whitesell. Bezos and Scott finalised their divorce in April 2019, the same month Sánchez and Whitesell separated.
The pair made their first public appearance together in May 2019 and have since appeared on red carpets and travelled internationally. They made a joint public appearance on a red carpet in January 2020, and Sánchez publicly supported Bezos when he flew on his company’s suborbital flight in June 2021. In June of this year, friends and prominent figures attended the couple’s multi-day wedding celebration in Venice, which media reports described as lavish and drew widespread attention.
Sánchez is a mother of three: two children from her marriage to Whitesell, and an older son from a previous relationship. The couple’s public outings have regularly drawn media attention given Bezos’s profile as the founder of Amazon and one of the world’s wealthiest people. News organisations have cited his estimated net worth at about £123 billion.
The outing in Venice comes shortly after a period of personal loss for Bezos. His mother, Jacklyn Bezos, died last month at age 78 after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, a condition Bezos said in a social media tribute had afflicted her in later years. Sánchez posted an Instagram message reflecting on grief and remembrance, writing, "Those we lose leave us with a quiet instruction… to live with more tenderness, more gratitude, more love. I carry that reminder with me today."
The Venice dinner was another in a series of public outings that have kept the couple in the spotlight since their marriage. Photographs from the evening showed them together as they left the restaurant and made their way to a waiting car. Both appeared composed as they moved through the crowd of photographers that frequently follows high-profile figures in the city.