This set of photos is bad for my forehead, because I just keep furrowing at them. They might be cursed. At least one of them might be my sleep paralysis demon.
I have never really responded to Lauren Sánchez — I remember her years as a newscaster for the Los Angeles UPN affiliate, which tells you how long ago that was; I feel like a good anchor is one you enjoy spending time with, or who at the very least doesn’t make you actively reach for your remote, and she was… not that for me. She married a mega-agent at one point, but it wasn’t until the Bezos relationship that she seemed to want to up her profile in a significant way — maybe because they felt the affair and their subsequent divorces was a bad look, or maybe they just really want everyone to like them, I don’t know. Anyway, I only mention that because it’s been interesting to observe all this as someone who’s been regionally aware of her since the early aughts, and VERY aware of HIM since the ’90s. Vogue seems to have agreed to position the Sanchez-Bezos union as one of brave philanthropists who are just SO VERY down-to-earth — space travel pun intended, given their particular extracurriculars — and in reading the piece, I can see the mechanisms at work. Chloe Malle got the assignment, and she’s Candice Bergen’s daughter; I badly want to buy a drink for those broads and get the full, unvarnished intel.
Honestly, the parts of the profile that made me cringe the most were the bits with Jeff Bezos, like when he’s asked if he’s helping with the wedding planning and his response is to chortle HELL NO and say that surely he doesn’t look that dumb — which is the WORST stereotypical dude response and if I were marrying someone who said that and meant it, I’d think twice. There’s also an ooky bit where he brags that he’s made Sánchez “vulnerable and soft.” But Sánchez had her moments:
Sánchez is undaunted by the question of how she reconciles her own carbon footprint with her environmental work. “I think Jeff and I really are focusing on the long-term commitment to climate, and we’re extremely optimistic about it. Ten billion is just the beginning.” She says they also use green aviation fuel when possible and that Koru can sail using only wind power. “We’ve done it and it is magical.”
“Well, we’re looking LONG TERM, not at our private jet use right NOW, although our boat is rad, DID I MENTION MY BILLIONS???” is not REALLY a great answer to that.
[Photos by Annie Leibovitz, story by Chloe Malle]
