You may have heard that Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos are engaged. That’s right, the helicopter pilot and a billionaire have graduated to a new stage of their relationship after five years together. It’s been a long time coming. Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott and Sanchez and her ex-husband Patrick Whitesell separated before their respective, official splits in 2019. They’ve been together ever since.
It’s an auspicious time for the couple. Bezos’s space flight company, Blue Origin, won a NASA contract; the company will provide a lander for the agency’s 2029 mission to the moon. And currently Bezos and Sanchez are yachting while engaged, also an important next step of every couple’s long-term development. Seriously, if you are in it for the long haul, do not skip this part! The repercussions for your relationship could be disastrous without the sacrosanct step of yachting in Mallorcan waters on your estimated $500 million boat that has a figurehead made in the image of your beloved fiancée.
The couple arrived in Spain on May 15, according to reports, but examine paparazzi photos from May 17 and they reveal that Sanchez managed to keep their engagement quiet. How? She used the age-old technique of turning the enormous rock portion of the ring toward the palm of her hand. A band is much harder to see than what appears to be, according to one diamond expert, “a spectacular cushion-cut diamond in the 25–30 carat range set in an ultra-classic four-prong platinum mounting.” This worked for several days. Though it was rumored that she was wearing an engagement ring while out, the paps couldn’t get a straightforward photo. An anonymous source finally confirmed it to Page Six on May 22, and she began wearing the diamond ring out while in Cannes for the film festival this week.
These advanced strategies of subterfuge will certainly come in handy when married to one of the wealthiest men on earth. The public will be fascinated by the highs, lows, and everything in between as they make their way down the aisle. That she has a keen sense of what it takes to protect one’s privacy is just one more sign that they were meant for each other. And Bezos appears to put some stock in signs and symbols. He’s named his big ship Koru, Maori for “loop or coil” that signifies “new beginnings,” and proposed to Sanchez in time for one of its first voyages. According to experts, marriages are 4,000% more likely to last if they begin with taking one’s superyacht for a whirl. 4,100% if the figurehead on the boat is an exact replica of one half of the couple’s face and body. The odds are in their favor.