Lauren Sánchez Reveals How Fiancé Jeff Bezos Inspired Her New Book

Can you write a story about Lauren Sánchez without mentioning her famous billionaire mogul as fiancé?

Sánchez is an Emmy-winning journalist, a pilot, the owner of an aviation company, a mother of three, a philanthropist and now a debut children’s author. Her new book, “The Fly Who Flew to Space” (32 pp., The Collective Book Studio) comes out September 10.

Her name is often followed by just a comma and the description: the fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Although Sánchez has been on TV in one form or another—as a sportscaster, morning show host or journalist for more than two decades—it was this relationship that recently thrust her into the national spotlight.

Now she’s often pictured as a glamour girl – at the Met Gala in a strapless Oscar de la Renta gown, at the White House for a state dinner in an off-the-shoulder corset dress, or on what is probably the world’s largest yacht in a white crochet bikini. Sometimes the person doing the depiction is herself – on Instagram.

“As women we can play many different roles,” says Sánchez, 54. “We don’t have to be put in a box.”

Her Instagram feed is also filled with photos of her flying helicopters, on stage at the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference, and celebrating graduations and birthdays with her children.

People have a very limited view of you, she says in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where she typically spends two weeks with her two youngest children, plus two in Miami when they’re with their father. She’s about to embark on a book tour for “The Fly,” a charming read with whimsical illustrations and a message every parent hopes their children will learn: Anything is possible. Stay curious. Dream big.

“When you look at people with an open heart and really believe that people are multifaceted and can be anything they want, I think it changes the world,” she says. “Because we really are more than one thing or what the world wants us to be.”

So what people think of her feels less important, but also, “hopefully this is an opportunity for people to get to know me on a different level than just what they see in a magazine.”

Sánchez’s story takes flight with a small insect on a plane

Nearly eight years ago, Sánchez was flying on a plane with her children when they saw a fly in the cockpit.

“We all started imagining what kind of adventure that little fly was having… flying high above the sky, away from his family. It made me think that even the smallest creatures can have incredible journeys if they dare to explore. I didn’t really write it down, I just kind of imagined it,” she says, laughing. “It happened to me.”

The simple, unexpected moment made her think it might make a good children’s book. She toyed with the idea, typing notes into her phone with a fly named Flynn. And then she let it go a little.

In 2021, she was stuck setting goals for the coming year, when her second-oldest son, Evan, reminded her, “You’ve been talking about this children’s book forever, why don’t you write one?”

There’s a little bit of Sanchez in the book. Or maybe a lot.

“Writing was never easy for me – not even a short children’s story – it just wasn’t. I thought about it, thought about it, went back and forth. Is this right?” she says.

As a girl growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sánchez struggled in school. She had dyslexia. That part of her story isn’t new. But now she’s sharing something new: Her son Evan, 18, is also dyslexic.

“I really felt out of place at school. It was just hard,” she says.

It was even worse seeing her son struggle.

“He was in second grade and he didn’t want to go to school. He was ashamed. It was hard,” she says.

She recently asked him if it was OK to talk about his dyslexia, “because I can talk about mine,” she says. Instead, he said, “I don’t care, I hope it helps other kids.”

When she speaks of her children, Sánchez’s voice often breaks, like a mother’s voice does when she speaks of her children’s struggles and her own pride in their courage. The love is always there.

She hopes her story—and Evan’s—told through Flynn will help other kids. “I’ve learned that by embracing my curiosity and opening myself up to new experiences, I can still achieve great things…things are possible,” she says.

When she wrote the book, she decided that the fly had to fly higher than an airplane and go into space. She was of course more recently inspired by Bezos, who owns the private spaceflight company Blue Origin.

“Being around someone who is so dedicated to pushing boundaries and exploring the unknown is incredibly inspiring for all of us in the family,” she says. “Our conversations around the dinner table often revolve around space and innovation. He challenges us all to dream big. I would say something at the dinner table and he would say, ‘No, dream bigger. Go bigger.’ So it’s no surprise that some of that excitement spilled over into Flynn’s adventure.”

She collaborated with illustrator Raleigh Stewart.

“Once Flynn was brought back to life, it was a completely different story,” she says.

If the flies on page 2 look familiar, that’s because they are. Flynn’s family is hers, too. You’ll notice a very glamorous fly and one that looks exactly like Bezos, if a fly could look like him.

The book and the illustrations were “very personal, even the fact that I had to pick all the flies with Raleigh, the characters in Flynn’s story are all inspired by my own family. Each of my children is represented in my book in some way.”

She asked her children, Nikko Gonzalez, 23, Evan Whitesell, 18, and Ella Whitesell, 16, to find themselves. “Some of them were happy about it,” she says, and “some of them were like, ‘Are you kidding me, Mom, is that my fly?'”

Curiosity drives Sánchez: ‘Be curious, take risks’

Sánchez has no plans to write a new book. She focuses on the environment, as vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, which fights climate change.

If this were the year of her children’s book. Next year, she says, is the year of learning Spanish.

Her book is also published in Spanish, something that was important to her. And there are a few small details that Latinos might notice, including the papel picado, or paper banners, in Flynn’s home.

Publishing a book in Spanish and English “reflects the diverse, multicultural world we live in today and the world I grew up in. … Language can connect people,” she says. “For me, it’s a way to celebrate and honor my culture and make sure every child feels seen and included.”

She also saw the Spanish version of the book as a way to make it accessible to more families, or to help families learn a new language together.

Sánchez didn’t learn Spanish as a child, but has picked it up over the years. When she speaks, her accent is perfect Central Mexico. Her mother spoke to her in both English and Spanish, but says, “She didn’t want me to have an accent, because she felt like it would hurt me.”

Now all her children are learning Spanish. “And they speak it better than I do. They embrace it, they love it,” she says.

She would like to work with a tutor to learn to speak the language fluently, especially since she will be spending more time in Miami.

“I want to inspire kids to believe in themselves and their dreams, no matter how big or small they are, no matter how hard school is for them. It really encourages them to be curious, to take risks and to know that they are amazing and that there are adventures out there waiting for you,” she says.

Like Flynn, Sánchez remains curious and open to the next adventure.