Lauren Sánchez knows what you think of her.
On Wednesday, Sánchez, 54, appeared at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 to talk with Moira Forbes about her children’s book and her philanthropic work with her fiancé Jeff Bezos.
But Sánchez also used the summit to address the fact that many only associate her with Bezos.
“I’m in this room with all these influential and powerful women,” she said. “I look around and think, ‘Whoa,’ and it’s not lost on me that most of you know me as Lauren Sánchez, comma Jeff Bezos’ fiancée.”
“I understand that, but I can choose to do something or I can choose to do nothing,” Sánchez said. “And I choose to do something.”
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images
Sánchez and Bezos have been a public couple since January 2019, as their relationship became public the same day Bezos announced his divorce from MacKenzie Scott. Sánchez and Bezos became engaged in May 2023.
In her conversation with Forbes, Sánchez said she tries to use the platform her relationship has given her to shine a spotlight on other people’s experiences.
“In my life as a journalist, I’ve been able to bring the stories of incredible people closer and shine a light on them, so to speak,” she said. “Now I get to do that in a different way and I see it as a responsibility that I really appreciate.”
Before her relationship with Bezos, Sánchez, a mother of three, was an Emmy-winning broadcast journalist and pilot.
Now she’s working with Bezos on philanthropic projects like the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion initiative to combat the climate crisis, and on Tuesday she released her first children’s book.
Lauren Sánchez will attend the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in September 2024. Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images
Although they spend much of their work and leisure time together, Sánchez told Forbes that Bezos supports her in tackling her own projects.
“Jeff really challenges me and says, ‘Go out there. Do your thing,'” she said. “He encourages me and I’m glad to have a partner like that.”
And she said the support goes both ways.
“Jeff doesn’t need all the support, and I encourage him as much as he encourages me,” she said. “A lot of people say about Jeff, ‘Oh, he’s changed.’ He hasn’t changed. He’s just revealing himself more and more every day.”
