Wedding crashers
Inside Bezos and Sánchez’s lavish Venice wedding, and protestors are already planning their entrance.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s relationship began the old-fashioned way: secret texts, scandalous headlines, and two very public divorces.
Their affair became tabloid fodder in early 2019 when the National Enquirer published leaked messages, including one where Bezos reportedly told Sánchez, “I love you, alive girl.” (???)
Within weeks, they were both separated from their respective spouses. By summer, they were flying on private jets to Cannes and posing on red carpets, rebranding their relationship in real time.
Now, six years later, the third-richest-person-in-the-world and his news anchor–helicopter pilot–socialite fiancée are getting married. In Venice. With a 30-carat engagement ring. And while the couple has kept official details quiet, what’s already leaked has turned the whole affair into a global spectacle and a local controversy.
The wedding, reportedly a three-day event from June 26 to 28, is the kind of over-the-top extravaganza only billionaires could pull off: five luxury hotels booked out. Guests including Oprah, Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, and Ivanka Trump. Rumors of performances by Elton John and Lady Gaga. A ceremony that may or may not be taking place on Bezos’s $500 million yacht Koru, anchored just off the Venetian lagoon. And a bride with upwards of 27 outfit changes with styling help from Anna Wintour herself.
In a Today Show interview, Sánchez joked:
“I do have a Pinterest. I’m just like every other bride.”
But even her own brother called it “a Princess Di thing.”
It’s easy to say, this is not just a wedding. It’s a massive, city-disrupting event that’s taken over hotels, public spaces, and headlines across the world.
Early events were rumored to be held at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a 14th-century building that once hosted a papal conclave. But that plan was reportedly scrapped after protesters promised to clog nearby canals with inflatable alligators (yes, you read that right).
Instead, the couple moved the final night’s festivities to the Arsenale, a remote, fortress-like venue surrounded by water on Venice’s eastern edge—far from the Rialto, and even farther from dissent.
But the protests haven’t gone away.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Venice has been papered with anti-Bezos signage. No Space for Bezos banners were hung from the Rialto Bridge. In St. Mark’s Square, activists unfurled signs reading If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax. Groups like Greenpeace Italy and “Everyone Hates Elon” (yes, that’s real) have joined in, criticizing what they say is the privatization of a fragile city already buckling under the weight of mass tourism and climate change.
“The problem is not the wedding,” protester Simona Abbate told Reuters. “The problem is the system. We think that one big billionaire can’t rent a city for his pleasure.”
Venice has long been at a breaking point.
The city’s population has dipped below 50,000 full-time residents. Its economy is over-reliant on short-term rentals and cruise ships. Climate change is raising water levels and corroding foundations. And yet, officials continue to court events like this—treating the wedding not as a disruption, but as a privilege.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Fan Mail to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.