Under the skin of the glamazon Lauren Sánchez

She's about to marry one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. So who is the former journalist turned

WHEN it was revealed that unassuming tech titan Jeff Bezos was having an affair with a married W woman in 2019, there was as much interest in her as there was in their illicit endeavours. Not only was bookish Bezos cheating on his partner of nearly 30 years - the modest, camera-shy philanthropist MacKenzie Scott - but the woman who appeared underneath headline accusations of "explicit" leaked pictures and cringey sexts couldn't be more of a contrast. It was Lauren Sánchez, a beaming, Botoxed former Los Angeles news anchor who had a history of dating NFL Hall of Famers and media execs. It wasn't just an incongruous choice for Bezos, but for Sánchez too.

Little did the world know but Amazon founder Bezos had been making himself into the type of man that Sánchez might like long before their affair was leaked to the press. According to a former colleague, Bezos transformed himself in about 2010. "The man who walked through the door was physically and aesthetically different. He looked like a younger, less nerdy Jeff." Sánchez, 54, and Bezos, 60, were born in the same hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, even if it was six years apart. Growing up, Sánchez's mother worked for the city of Albuquerque and her father owned a pilot school. She initially wanted to be a reporter but had undiagnosed dyslexia. It wasn't until she enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles that Sanchez learned to work around it, with the help of her broadcast journalism professor, Lori Medigovich. "Lauren was memorable because she seemed so driven", the academic recalled as part of a Vogue profile last year.

As Bezos began his world domination with Amazon in 1994, Sánchez cut her teeth at local news channel, KCOP-TV.