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Lauren Sánchez Bezos Celebrates Daughter Ella’s College Milestone With Rare Photo
Lauren Sánchez Bezos still remembers this touching interaction.
The journalist reflected on her favorite moments from her and Jeff Bezos’ wedding in Italy last summer, including how one of her sons made her emotional with his speech.
“One of my kids, who is dyslexic, went up there and talked about a moment that was extremely important to him,” Lauren, 56, said during her Mar. 4 appearance on the Today show. “I had no idea what he was going to say.”
True to her words, the pilot—who shares kids Evan, 18, and Ella, 17, with ex Patrick Whitesell, as well as son Nikko, 24, with ex Tony Gonzalez—was surprised when her son talked about a pivotal memory from his childhood.
“He was in the 4th grade, not writing well, and he wrote this sentence that says, ‘I can do this,’” Lauren recalled, becoming visibly emotional. “It was his first sentence, and that’s really late to be writing your first sentence as any parent with a kid with dyslexia knows. I blew (that paper) up and I put it in our kitchen. Anyway, he talked about how special that moment was for him.”
She continued of his speech, “That was literally the most meaningful and impactful moment at my wedding, besides getting married to Jeff.”
Indeed, this soliloquy hit home for Lauren, who was also diagnosed with dyslexia when she was 19 years old. She admitted she suffered with spelling certain sentences growing up, but it wasn’t until her community college teacher Lori got her tested that she learned of the condition.
“I went through life hiding it, even when I was a news anchor [at Good Day LA],” she explained. “No one knew I was dyslexic except my co-anchor Rick Garcia and he would help me.”
Lauren Sánchez/Instagram
Since then, Lauren—also stepmom to the Amazon founder’s four kids, whom he shares with ex-wife Mackenzie Scott—has embraced her condition, including writing about her struggles in her latest book The Fly Who Flew Under the Sea. And as she continues to be an inspiration for her son, she’s preparing for her daughter to hit a big milestone: Going off to college.
In fact, her preparation has been filled with a few laughs and tears.
“I went to dinner with [Ella] the other night,” Lauren playfully reminisced on Today. “I’m really not a crier, but I started talking about college and I just started crying. And I thought she was going to be like, ‘Mom, are you OK?’ She started laughing at me, literally.”
Keep reading to see Lauren and Jeff bonding with their blended family…
BEI/Shutterstock
Nikko Gonzalez
Lauren Sánchez Bezos welcomed son Nikko Gonzalez with then-boyfriend Tony Gonzalez on Feb. 12, 2001.
At the time, Tony was the guy on the Chiefs, playing for Kansas City for 12 seasons before closing out his career with the Atlanta Falcons and retiring in 2013.
Now a football analyst, he and Lauren broke up when Nikko was still very little, but they eventually teamed up as friendly co-parents.
"That took about five years," Lauren told the Wall Street Journal in 2023, noting that they all had been together for Thanksgiving that year. "I'm not saying that being best friends with your ex is the end-all be-all. But you do need to be able to communicate."
Lauren Sánchez/Instagram
Tony also has two daughters and a son with wife October "Tobie" Gonzalez, and when the former NFL tight end turned 49 in February 2025, Lauren wrote in tribute to her ex on Instagram, "Happy birthday to one of the best dads ever!!!”
Nikko, meanwhile, lives in Manhattan and notes "NYC Founder" and "AI-powered research discovery" on his Instagram bio. But the University of Colorado, Boulder, graduate has also ventured into modeling, making his runway debut at Dolce & Gabbana’s Fall/Winter 2024-2025 menswear show.
"Everyone really just gets along,” Nikko told Vogue about his blended family in 2023. “There’s no real alliances. It’s kind of boring in that way.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Evan Whitesell
Lauren married Endeavor executive Patrick Whitesell in August 2005. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman—a sampling of the groom's A-list talent agency clientele—were among the guests at their Santa Barbara, Calif., nuptials.
The couple welcomed son Evan Whitesell on June 22, 2006. Aside from bringing their kids to the occasional family-friendly event, Lauren—who was a cohost of Good Day LA from 2011 until 2017—and Patrick kept their home life pretty private.
Instagram/Lauren Sánchez Bezos
But Lauren did share in August 2024 that Evan was following in her footsteps as a helicopter pilot.
“There’s a special kind of trust that comes when you watch your kid take off on their own for the first time,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “It’s about letting go, but also knowing they’re more than ready. It’s terrifying, exhilarating and so deeply rewarding all at once.”
The "proud, heartbroken, grateful" mom shared on her Instagram Story in August 2025 that she had dropped Evan off for his freshman year at University of Miami.
Lauren Sánchez/Instagram
Ella Whitesell
Eleanor "Ella" Whitesell was born Jan. 15, 2008. Again, she and her brother both enjoyed a private childhood growing up in Los Angeles.
While Ella may be driving herself by now, Lauren once relished taking her teenage daughter to school in the morning. "Sometimes we tussle," she told Vogue in 2023. "Other times she really opens up, and other times she says nothing and I take it in."
Ahead of her June 2025 wedding to Jeff Bezos, Lauren shared how excited she was to see maid of honor Ella in her custom Dolce & Gabbana suit. "Ella’s original," the bride told Vogue. "She beats to her own drum."
Todd Williamson/Getty Images
Jeff Bezos
Jeff shares four kids with ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, but only their eldest—Preston Bezos, born in 2000—has the slightest of public profiles. The exes have otherwise kept the names and ages of their other children private, though Jeff has shared that they adopted a daughter from China—and the family of six made a rare appearance at the Star Trek Beyond premiere in July 2016.
"I like to read the newspaper, I like to have coffee, I like to have breakfast with my kids before they go to school," Jeff told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., in 2018. "My puttering time is very important to me."
Bruce Glikas/WireImage
Jeff and MacKenzie revealed in January 2019 that they had split up after 25 years of marriage. Within hours came the revelation that the Amazon founder had already moved on with Lauren—who had quietly separated from Patrick months beforehand. Lauren and Patrick then simultaneously filed for divorce and the terms were finalized in October 2019.
According to Lauren, once she and Jeff were living together his morning routine expanded to telling Ella every day before she left for school, "Don’t learn anything I wouldn’t learn!”
As the Los Angeles Area Emmy winner told Vogue in 2023, "Our lives are pretty normal. Daily life mostly revolves around our kids."
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