Lauren Sanchez has always enjoyed the finer things in life, including her romantic endeavors. However, Lauren is now enjoying even finer elements than most, as she is currently married to Jeff Bezos, the ultra-rich founder of Amazon. But long before Jeff ever came along, Lauren was already living her best life, dating some pretty impressive people, including a few NFL athletes.
Lauren’s relationship history involves a divorce, plus the birth of three total children, whom Lauren shares with two of her exes. From one failed marriage to several highly speculated, high-profile romances, Lauren has seen and experienced a lot. Hopefully, Lauren has found her forever this time in Jeff.
Lauren Sanchez’s relationship history is complicated
Jeff is Lauren’s second husband. Her first marriage ended in 2019, following fourteen years of (mostly) marital bliss, which gifted her with two children. Before that, Lauren dated a player from the Kansas City Chiefs, which resulted in her first foray into parenthood back in 2001. To date, all three of her children are now young adults.
Now, with Jeff joining her family, bringing along his own four adult children from his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, their home must be a lively, fun, and entertaining place, filled with same-day deliveries of everything they need from daddy’s app, especially during the holidays.
With all eyes on her, Lauren has saved her (hopefully) best for last with Jeff. These two just said their vows in front of multiple A-list celebrities during an over-the-top wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy, in June 2025. Their guests included the Kardashians, Orlando Bloom, Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady, and Sydney Sweeney. One of her exes was also reportedly in attendance, so let us now look back at her broken road (of busted but mostly well-meaning suitors), which led her straight to her Amazon Prime pick, Jeff.
Rory Markas
Long before becoming a public figure, Lauren was a student studying acting and speech at the University of New Mexico. Following her time here, Lauren transferred to El Camino College. However, she jumped ship once more in 1992, finally landing at her final destination, the University of Southern California. Here, she focused on her degree path in Mass Communications.
During her studies, Lauren interned at a Los Angeles television station, where she met and dated a sports broadcaster named Rory Markas. According to a source at Page Six, Lauren and Rory grew so close that they even got engaged. However, this source also alleges that Lauren left Rory once he switched jobs. Young love is hard, after all.
Nevertheless, Rory went on to become a play-by-play announcer for the Angels baseball team. But tragically, he passed away in 2010 following a heart attack.
Anthony Miller
In 1996, Lauren, then a burgeoning full-time television reporter, attended the Super Bowl in Arizona. While working, she met Anthony Miller, a now-retired player for the Denver Broncos. Reportedly, Anthony was intrigued by this woman bearing a mic pack and a camera crew. So, while her team started breaking down their filming equipment at the end of the game, he approached Lauren with the idea of a dinner date. In response, Lauren allegedly said yes.
Lauren and Anthony dated for four years. They felt committed enough to get engaged, and their engagement period lasted for nearly two of these years. However, according to the Daily Mail, Anthony looked in her diary and found out that she was cheating on him. But other sources claimed differently, noting that it was he who cheated, specifically with a stripper.
Either way, their relationship ended in 2000. And no, Anthony was not in attendance at her wedding to Jeff.
Derek Fisher
After being caught in a bad romance with Anthony, Lauren presumably entertained a new relationship with Derek Fisher, a then-Los Angeles Lakers player. According to a source at Page Six, Lauren and Derek casually dated at a time when they were both single. “Lauren was with Derek Fisher for a while [after] things went south with Anthony Miller,” this source claimed.
Unfortunately, the on-again, off-again love story of Lauren and Derek contains many unknown chapters, as neither party has ever publicly commented on their relationship. Regardless, we do know that Derek has moved forward from his Lauren era of living, both professionally and romantically speaking. Career-wise, Derek went on to coach in the NBA and WNBA. He is currently the head coach of the Crespi Carmelite High School boys’ basketball team in Encino, California.
Romantically speaking, Derek is now married to Gloria Govan, a former cast member on Basketball Wives.
Tony Gonzalez
After parting ways with Derek in the early 2000s, Lauren dated Tony Gonzalez, a former NFL tight end. Lauren and Tony welcomed their son, Nikko, in 2001. Sadly, these two decided to end their relationship in 2002. But thankfully, after about five years, they were able to come together and develop a healthy friendship for the sake of their son.
Tony married his current wife, October Gonzalez, in 2007. According to Town & Country, “Tony and his wife Tobie” are now “best friends” with Lauren. Their coparenting relationship centers around solid communication, which Tony and Lauren have since come close to perfecting, Lauren stressed. “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,’” she gushed.
Due to their closeness, Tony and his wife were in attendance last month to help celebrate Lauren and Jeff as they tied the knot.
Henry Simmons
Following her split from Tony, Lauren dated an extra-hot actor named Henry Simmons. Her relationship with this NYPD Blue star began around 2002, and it progressed rapidly from there. Only five months after they started dating, they became engaged. However, at some unknown point, matters between the pair dissolved, as they ended their engagement (alongside their entire relationship) in 2004.
Henry then married actress Sophina Brown, appearing at her side as her on-screen husband in the series Ravenswood. He remains in this industry to date. His current project, Emperor of Ocean Park, is now available to stream on many apps, notably MGM+ and Amazon Prime.
Like a handful of her other earlier love-related associations, details on Lauren and Henry are few and far between. However, the rumor mills once reported that Lauren called off her engagement with Henry shortly after meeting her future ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell, whom Lauren officially started dating after parting ways with Henry.
Patrick Whitesell
In 2005, Lauren married Patrick, a talent agent and executive chairman of William Morris Endeavor (WME). This agency represents a broad range of stars spanning the entertainment, sports, and fashion industries. As both Patrick and Lauren experienced many successes in these industries, their wedding turned into a star-studded event. In attendance were many A-list celebrities, including Jennifer Garner and Matt Damon.
During their marriage, this former Good Day L.A. co-host welcomed two more children into her life with Patrick. In addition to Nikko, her first child with Tony, Lauren gave birth to her second son, Evan, in 2006, alongside her first (and currently only) daughter, Eleanor, in 2008. Then, following over a decade of marriage, Patrick and Lauren separated and filed for divorce in January of 2019. Their divorce concluded in October of that year.
That said, the ending of their relationship falls into somewhat murky waters. You see, their divorce filing came just one day after Jeff finalized his separation from his affluent first wife, Mackenzie. Additionally, by the time they filed for divorce, PEOPLE had already confirmed that Lauren was in a new relationship with, you guessed it, Jeff. However, other claims have also noted that Lauren and Patrick were already quietly separated by the time that Jeff entered this timeline.
Thankfully, Patrick has also since moved on. In 2021, he married the always stunning Australian model and actress, Pia Miller. However, while his children with Lauren attended and even participated in her second wedding to Jeff, Patrick himself was not present.
Jeff Bezos
All of these broken relationships led Lauren to Jeff. After making their romance public in 2019, Lauren and Jeff took some much-needed time to properly heal from their similarly timed divorces before jumping into anything serious. But in May of 2023, Jeff finally popped the question, complete with a multi-million-dollar engagement ring, to which Lauren said yes. The bride-to-be detailed this proposal to Vogue six months later, saying she “blacked out a bit” when she first saw this massive sparkler from Jeff, who was down on one knee, eagerly awaiting her reply.
That November, Jeff and Lauren threw an engagement party at the residence of designer Diane Von Furstenberg in Beverly Hills, California. Many celebrities, including Barbra Streisand, Chris Rock, and Salma Hayek, stopped in to wish them well.
In June 2025, Jeff and Lauren finally kicked off their wedding week in Venice, Italy. Lauren appeared blissfully happy during this multi-day event, which reportedly cost around $50 million to pull off. Now married, this former journalist, licensed pilot, and owner of Black Ops Aviation, a female-owned and operated aerial film and production company, is currently settling into her newest title: Mrs. Bezos.
TELL US – DID YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL OF LAUREN’S FORMER SUITORS? DO YOU THINK THAT LAUREN AND JEFF WILL GO THE DISTANCE?
