Let’s be real. If we call Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s life “lavish,” it would sound like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch. As of May 2025, Bezos is officially the second richest man on Earth, and he’s not exactly shy about it. The Amazon tycoon and his glamorous fiancée Lauren Sánchez have made flaunting wealth into an art form.
Consider Met Gala this year for example. They skipped the most-watched fashion event on the planet, reportedly to finalize plans for their over-the-top, three-day wedding spectacle in Italy.
But all this flash and fanfare? It might just hold the key to understanding why Bezos’s marriage of 25 years to philanthropist MacKenzie Scott fell apart in the first place.
Jeff Bezos new wife loudly went to space for 2 mins and wants to be seen as a hero while his ex wife quietly gives away billions to people right here on earth. pic.twitter.com/k25AprSZtn
— M.S (@MalaakSafa) April 17, 2025
According to a 2024 Daily Mail exposé, Bezos and Scott’s life together wasn’t just wealthy, it was understated. Scott, now one of the world’s most generous philanthropists, kept their family grounded. And back in 2018, Bezos himself painted a far more domestic picture of life before Sánchez. “I like to read the newspaper, I like to have coffee, I like to have breakfast with my kids before they go to school,” he said in a speech quoted by the outlet.
That version of Jeff; quiet mornings, family-first values, feels worlds apart from the man today who casually offers his friends joyrides to the edge of space. So it’s hard not to wonder: was he always craving a louder, flashier life and someone like Sánchez, who’s more than ready to match it?
Bezos and his soon-to-be wife clearly have a taste for ultra-luxury. Reports say, Venice locals are already disgusted with their grand preparations that’s blocking roads and causing chaos during peak tourist season.
Scott made a very intentional decision to raise their four children with a sense of financial humility. Her parenting values looked very similar to those of another billionaire ex-wife, Melinda Gates.
Both women were determined not to let unimaginable wealth warp their kids’ worldviews. In fact, Bill Gates famously vowed to leave his children just a sliver of his massive fortune, explaining, “I don’t think that amount of money would be good for them,” in a 2011 interview with the Daily Mail.
Melinda even credited Scott for helping her stay grounded as a parent. In a 2024 interview with The New York Times, she shared, “Well, first of all, [the kids] had an allowance, so we absolutely did not just buy them things. […] And so I think it was much more of an upbringing like I grew up in: a very middle-class household where money did dictate whether I got an extra pair of shoes that year or not, right?”
She added, “MacKenzie was helpful to me in this”, noting that the two women “had quite similar philosophies.”
Jeff Bezos and his current wife in Italy today
So rich, so little class. pic.twitter.com/l0OuGwSidU
— Go Bluesky (@StrictlyChristo.bsky.social) =🦤➡️🦋 (@StrictlyChristo) January 16, 2024
And then there’s Sánchez, whose $6,000 coffee cup-shaped clutch bag barely scratches the surface of her indulgent tastes. The contrast is stark. One woman prioritized keeping her family down to earth. The other seems to be aiming for the stratosphere. Literally.
So while Bezos’s new love story is headline-making in all the glitzy ways, it might just tell us what really went wrong in his first marriage.
Scroll to catch some more glimpses of the ‘billionaire romance.’
