Jeff Bezos has overtaken Elon Musk as the world’s richest person, marking the first time in more than nine months that the Tesla CEO has been bumped from the top spot.

Musk was dethroned from the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after Tesla shares fell 7.2 percent on Monday, taking his net worth to $197.7 billion, compared to Bezos’ $200.3 billion.

The 60-year-old Bezos has not been in first place in Bloomberg’s rankings since 2021.

While Amazon shares have more than doubled since the end of 2022 and are nearing an all-time high, Tesla is down about 50 percent from its 2021 peak.

The bulk of Bezos’ fortune comes from his 9 percent stake in Amazon, where he is the largest shareholder despite selling 50 million shares worth about $8.5 billion in February.

Bezos first surpassed Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Inc., as the world’s richest person in 2017.

But a massive rally in Tesla shares left Bezos and Musk battling for the top spot for most of 2021.

Bezos fell far behind at the end of 2021, and this is the first time he has regained his position since then.

Here, MailOnline looks at the other mega-rich people on the list.

(3) Bernard Arnault $197 billion

Bernard Arnault is the chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury products group.

Born in Roubaix, France on March 5, 1949, he began his career as an engineer at the construction company Ferret-Savinel and was promoted to several executive management positions before assuming the role of chairman in 1978.

Arnault, 75, stayed there until 1984, when he reorganized the Financière Agache holding company.

In 1989, he became majority shareholder of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, where he has been chairman and CEO ever since. Arnault does married and five children.

(4) Mark Zuckerberg $179 billion

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder, chairman and CEO of Meta, which he first founded as Facebook in 2004. He is in charge of the company’s overall direction and product strategy.

Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York and studied computer science at Harvard University before moving to Palo Alto, California in 2004.

In October 2021, Facebook went Meta.

Zuckerberg is also co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) with his wife Priscilla, which they founded in 2015 to solve some of society’s most pressing problems, including improving education and tackling diseases.

(5) Bill Gates $150 billion

Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft Corporation with Paul Allen in 1975.

The company grew to become a global leader in business and personal software and services.

In 2008, Gates moved to focus full-time on the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which they continue to co-chair after their marriage ended in 2021.

As part of the divorce settlement, he transferred at least $6 billion worth of stock in publicly traded companies to Melinda.

As of March 2020, when Gates left Microsoft’s board, he owned about 1.3 percent of the company’s stock.

He is one of the largest owners of farmland in the US and has made investments in numerous companies, including Republic Services and Deere & Co.

He has also donated more than $59 billion to the Gates Foundation.

(6) Steve Ballmer $143 billion

Steve Ballmer is the former CEO of Microsoft and led the company from 2000 to 2014.

Ballmer led Microsoft as CEO after the first dot-com crash. He joined the company in 1980 after leaving Stanford’s MBA program.

He tried to bridge the gap with Google in search capabilities and Apple in mobile phones.

In 2014, he retired from Microsoft and bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, which is now worth $4.65 billion, according to Forbes.

In 2022, Ballmer and his wife Connie donated approximately $425 million to the University of Oregon to establish an institute to address the behavioral and mental health needs of children in the state.

(7) Warren Buffett $133 billion

American businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett is chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, which owns dozens of companies, including Dairy Queen and Duracell.

Buffett and his late wife Susan raised three children: Susie, Howard and Peter.

He is now married to Astrid Menks Buffett and lives and works in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffet first bought stocks at age 11 and filed taxes for the first time at age 13, before becoming one the most successful investors of all time.

He has pledged to donate more than 99 percent of his fortune.

(8) Larry Ellison $129 billion

Larry Ellison is the founder and largest shareholder of database company Oracle.

The company’s reported revenue was $50 billion in the year to May 31, 2023.

Ellison owns more than 40 percent of the company, as well as a stake in Tesla, a sailing team and the Indian Wells tennis event.

He retired from the role of CEO of Oracle in 2014 after 37 years in charge.

In 2020, Ellison, who also has a large real estate portfolio, moved to the island of Lanai in Hawaii, which he bought almost entirely in 2012 for $300 million.

Ellison served on Tesla’s board from December 2018 to August 2022 and still owns approximately 15 million shares in the company.

(9) Larry Page $122 billion

Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019, but he remains a board member and controlling shareholder.

He co-founded Google in 1998 with Sergey Brin, who also had a Stanford Ph.D. student.

They both invented Google’s PageRank algorithm for its search engine.

Page was CEO until 2001, when he was succeeded by Eric Schmidt. From 2011 to 2015 he became CEO of Alphabet.

Alphabet had reported revenues of $307.4 billion in 2023.

(10) Sergey Brin $116 billion

Sergey Brin is co-founder of Alphabet. The group’s divisions include Android, Gmail and YouTube.

Google went public in 2004 and began trading as Alphabet in 2015.

Brin left his position as president of Alphabet in December 2019, but he remains a board member and controlling shareholder.

Brin moved to the US from the Soviet Union at the age of six. He later earned a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.

Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum reunited at the 30th annual SAG Awards on Saturday over 30 years since their split. 

The stunning Oscar winner, 68, and the handsome actor, 71 – who starred together in 1986’s The Fly and were married from 1987 to 1991 – shared the stage to present the night’s top honor, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

‘The great Geena Davis, everybody,’ Jeff said of his gorgeous ex to kick off their presentation.

The pair then effortlessly reminded fans of their incredible chemistry, exchanging words of encouragement while announcing the nominees — American Fiction, Barbie, The Color Purple, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Oppenheimer — ultimately awarding the honor to Oppenheimer. 

The endearing interactions sparked a frenzy on social media, capturing the attention of a younger generation who may have been unaware that these two stars were once Hollywood’s reigning ‘It’ couple.

‘I was today years old when I found out Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis was a thing in real life,’ as another added ‘They were married?!”

‘Awesome to see exes like this still get along’, gushed another. 

The pair met on the set of 1985’s Transylvania 6-5000 and were newly single at the time.

Geena had finalized her divorce from restaurateur Richard Emmolo a year ago, while Jeff had recently parted ways with his wife, actress Patricia Gaul, whom he had married in 1980.

“[Our relationship] was joyful. It really was. That was a magical chapter in my life,’ Geena recalled to People in 2022.  

They soon signed up to portray ill-fated lovers in David Cronenberg’s 1986 horror-romance, The Fly. 

‘Right away we got to work with each other on an incredible project,’ she added. ‘And we were so passionate about that project and loved working on it.’

The movie soared to success, instantly catapulting them into the limelight as a celebrity couple. 

They tied the knot a year later and reunited on-screen in 1988 for Earth Girls Are Easy. 

As for Jeff, he told GQ that Geena ‘made love, falling in love, so easy,’ calling her ‘purely loving, beguiling, and irresistible.’

Regrettably, their union came to an end in 1990, and the reasons behind their separation remain elusive, with the former couple attributing the usual ‘irreconcilable differences’ without providing a more concrete explanation. 

‘I’m sure we’re both pretty sad. We certainly had high hopes, every good intention. It’s upsetting,’ she said after the split to People. 

Yet, 34 years after their divorce, the telegenic pair still have that same chemistry.

After her split with Jeff, Geena went on to marry her director Renny Harlin on September 18, 1993. She filed for divorce on August 26, 1997.

In December 2021, she finalized her divorce from Reza Jarrahy after separating in 2017.

They were married in September 2001 and share three children — 19- year-old twin sons Kaiis Steven and Kian William, plus 21-year-old daughter Alizeh Keshvar.

Following his divorce from Geena, Jeff would end up meeting Emilie Livingston, a former gymnast, in 2011.

They announced their engagement in July 2014, and tied the knot at the famed Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2014.

Since then, they’ve welcomed two sons: Charlie Ocean in 2015 and River Joe in 2017. 

After a taxing 118-day strike, the Screen Actors Guild honored the best performers in film and television.

Winners were determined by SAG-AFTRA members, who vote for their favorites across a number of categories.

Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani announced the nominations earlier this year on Instagram Live, with Barbie and Oppenheimer leading the film nominations with four nods each.

Netflix streamed the ceremony for the first time. Last year’s awards were streamed on Netflix’s YouTube account.

The awards come just months after SAG-AFTRA struck a deal with film studios following a months-long strike with pay in the streaming era and artificial intelligence top issues of concern.

The strike began on July 25, 2023 and a tentative deal was struck on November 8. It formally ended on December 5, 2023 with a 78% yes in voting.

Despite disagreements over the final deal, the outcome was a huge relief for union leaders and the entertainment industry following a grueling few months of strikes.

The boycott coincided with the WGA strike, which lasted from May 2 to September 27.

Aubrey Plaza And Jeff Baena secretly tied the knot in 2021 as they celebrated their 10th anniversary.

The pair have been dating since 2011, but they have never confirmed exactly when they met or when their love story began.

The white Lotus alum and the Horse girl director has worked on films including Life after Beth And Joshy in 2016 and Spin me around in 2022.

“I think when you're with someone in your field, they understand what you're dealing with on a deeper level,” Plaza said. People in 2019.

Baena also shared how happy he is to work with his wife. “She's amazing. I would work with her if she wasn't my wife, but luckily she is my wife,” Baena said Role speaker in 2022. “The opportunity to do something creative [together] where we are both fulfilled – how rare is that?”

Before production starts Spin me around, Plaza shared a celebratory Instagram post for Baena, praising his film. She also subtly revealed that the two had tied the knot.

“So proud of my dear husband,” Plaza wrote in May 2021. “For coming up with a new movie that takes us to Italy to cause even more trouble.”

Keep scrolling to see a full timeline of Plaza and Baena's relationship:

2011

Plaza and Baena have been dating since 2011, but it is unknown when the pair actually started dating.

2014

Baena made his directorial debut with 2014's Life after Bethwith Plaza as the titular character.

2017

Plaza made her debut as a film producer alongside Baena The small hoursin which she played a nun named Sister Fernanda.

2020

Plaza's dark humor inspired a unique Valentine's Day Instagram post with her husband. The two posed for a photo, but Plaza held a dagger to Baena's face. “And Happy Valentine's Day,” she captioned the photo, adding a heart emoji.

2021

As we celebrate Baena's film Spin me around in May, Plaza subtly announced that she and Baena had tied the knot. “So proud of my sweet husband,” she wrote via Instagram.

She later shared the full story The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December of that year.

“One evening we were a bit bored,” says the Parks and recreation alum remembered. “We got married and I'll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That's real, look it up.”

Plaza went on to explain how she had to negotiate to get the officiant to agree to drive to her house and perform the ceremony in their backyard. She enlisted her neighbor – whom she described as a real witch – to get her spiritual blessing.

“I quickly made a love altar in our garden. Facts about our love, small stones, smoke, fire. Things of that nature. Then the guy from the Alhambra showed up,” Plaza continued. “I don't remember much about it, it was vague. But I'm pretty sure it was legal.”

2022

Spin me around premiered in the United States in August, starring Plaza alongside co-writer Alison Brie.

A few months later, Plaza opened its doors GQ about her marriage to Baena, comparing her life to that of her character The White LotusHarper.

“I have been with my husband for twelve years,” she said in November. “I'm talking about being in a relationship that has its ups and downs, and going through a rough patch and comparing yourself to another couple who seems perfect.”

JEFF STELING raged on Twitter after his car was vandalized in Chesterfield.

The talkSPORT presenter is on tour through Great Britain and has already visited several towns and cities with his 'An Evening with Jeff Stelling', including Liverpool and Southampton.

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Stelling, 68, spent Sunday evening in Chesterfield but ended his show when his car was vandalized.

One of the doors was cut open, leaving a huge gash that destroyed the bodywork.

Stelling revealed that he had contacted police about the case, while also using social media to shoot down the perpetrators.

He wrote: “Thank you Chesterfield. Anyone who knows the assholes who did this to my car while I was trying to entertain people, please let me know.

“What the hell happened to people.”

Some of Stelling's followers expressed sympathy or tried to help, while others made jokes at his expense.

A frustrated Stelling responded to those comments, adding, “You know what. That's almost as depressing as cutting open a car.”

Shocked all of Sky Sports at the end of last season when he revealed that working on football Saturdays made him ill.

The former TV presenter says he became too 'tired' and 'stressed' to go out with his wife and family on Saturday evening.

He said after quitting: “I had the most fantastic run of the show.

“But the show went in one direction, which meant it wasn't quite the same.

“Even though I had been there for a long time, I felt like some of my views were not being taken into account at all. Every week I was fighting a battle. I got tired of fighting and it made me sick.

“Eventually I went to Sky management and said, 'This makes me feel unwell. I have to walk away from it.'”

Lauren Sanchez threw her billionaire fiancé, Jeff Bezos, an out-of-this-world 60th birthday party with an A-list guest list that included everyone from Kim Kardashian to Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom. 

The private bash was hosted at the couple’s Beverly Hills mansion with a ‘celestial space-age’ theme, a nod to the Amazon founder’s Blue Origin aerospace company. 

Sanchez, 54, channeled her inner Jessica Rabbit in a custom red Swarovski crystal gown by designer Laura Basci, likely to the delight of Bezos, who turned 60 on January 12. 

The dress required more than 800 hours of hand-beading, according to a press release from the brand. 

The bride-to-be paired the figure-hugging frock with a $4,995 crystal-incrusted rocket ship bag by Judith Leiber. 

Sanchez proudly showed off her look on Instagram the day after the party, sharing behind-the-scenes photos of herself striking a pose in her dressing room ahead of the bash.  

‘Getting ready is sometimes the best part of the night. Thank you @laurabasci for creating this incredible dress for such a special evening,’ she wrote in the caption. 

Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Kendell Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé were among the hundreds of guests spotted at the lavish birthday party, a source told The Sun. 

Sanchez went all out for her husband-to-be’s birthday and set up a replica of Bezos’ first Amazon office with his original chair, the insider shared. 

Guests were served ‘everything from caviar to McDonald’s, a tribute to the billionaire’s first job when he was 16.

The source added that ‘photography was banned at the event’ and attendees had to ‘put their phones in pouches’ when they arrived.

Many guests confirmed their attendance with posts and comments on Instagram, including Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Ivanka Trump, Heidi Klum, Jewel, Kathy Hilton, and her daughters, Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton Rothschild. 

‘You are the brightest gift to Jeff. Happy Birthday. We had a blast celebrating with you,’ Klum, 50, wrote on Sanchez’s post. 

‘You look so gorgeous in that red dress!!! What a fun beautiful evening,’ Kathy Hilton, 64, added. ‘Sooo fun last night!!’ her daughter Nicky agreed. 

Nicky, 40, and her older sister, Paris, 42, both dazzled in silver. The former had on a bedazzled spaghetti strap dress paired with a star tiara, while the latter wore a long-sleeve gown made of laser-cut stars.  

‘Such a fun night,’ Trump, 42, commented, adding rocket and space emojis. 

The former White House senior adviser was joined by her husband, Jared Kushner, 43, whom she posed for photos with at the party.

The couple flew to Los Angeles from their home on Indian Creek Island near Miami, Florida, where Bezos recently purchased not one but two properties.  

Trump revealed her black and gold beaded halter gown was a vintage Roberto Cavalli design featured in his Fall/Winter 2006 collection. 

She posted a few solo shots of herself modeling the look, including footage of herself blowing a kiss at the camera. 

‘Last night was so fun! U looked amazingggggggg,’ Kardashian, 43, gushed. 

‘Right back at you!’ Trump responded. 

Jewel, 49, matched Sanchez in a red sequin dress by Yousef Al Jasmi, although her frock was a long-sleeve mini dress with feathered cuffs. 

The singer shared photos of herself posing with the host, as well as a group shot of herself with the Hilton sisters and U Beauty founder Tina Chen Craig. 

‘Set donut down, took (small) break from yoga pants and danced!’ she captioned the party pictures. 

Perry, 39, took the space theme seriously and posted snapshots of herself dressed as a glamourous alien complete with antennas and pointy ears. 

The E.T. singer posed for pictures at her home with her fiancé, Bloom, 47, who also sported prosthetics to turn himself into an extraterrestrial. 

‘Spaced out and starry eyed,’ she wrote in the caption. 

Other guests included designer Tommy Hilfiger and his wife, Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger; Robbie Williams and his wife, Ayda Field Williams, designers Stacy Bendet and Sarah Staudinger; influencer Isabelle Boemeke; Elsa Collins; Lydia Kives; and  Veronica Smiley Grazer. 

Sanchez first celebrated Bezos’ birthday on January 12 with a gushing tribute featuring a picture of the world’s third richest man as a toddler. 

He appeared to be celebrating his second birthday in the snapshot, which showed him sitting in a highchair in front of a chocolate cake with two candles in it. 

‘Look who’s turning 60,’ Sanchez wrote in the caption. ‘Happy birthday, baby. Today is another day where your laughter fills our home, and that smile of yours lights up every room. 

‘Wishing you an abundance of simple joys and quiet moments of happiness. May this year be filled with everything you love, from peaceful mornings to joyous celebrations. 

‘I hope each day brings you countless reasons to smile, just like you give me a reason to smile every single day. Love you, and happy birthday, my love.’

Sanchez later returned to Instagram to post a sultry photo of herself modeling a $2,095 Dolce & Gabbana see-through dress. 

She slipped the figure-hugging frock over a black balconette bra and matching underwear before striking a pose in celebration of Bezos.

‘Happy birthday baby,’ she captioned the image of herself her rocking a shag hairdo complete with blunt bangs. 

Sanchez revealed on her Instagram Stories that they rang in her future husband’s birthday in Paris ahead of his party. 

She posted a picture of the stunning view of the Eiffel Tower from their hotel window, which also included a close-up of a bouquet of white roses. 

‘Best morning with the birthday boy,’ she wrote. 

The getaway came less than a month after Sanchez celebrated her 54th birthday aboard Bezos’s $500 million mega-yacht off the coast of St. Barts on December 19. 

It’s unclear when the couple started dating, but their romance was first exposed by the National Enquirer in January 2019, while they were both married to other people.

Soon after, the mogul divorced Mackenzie Scott, his wife of more than 25 years and the mother of his four children, while the former journalist left her husband, Patrick Whitesell, executive chairman of Endeavor, the parent company of WME talent agency. 

Bezos and Sanchez made their first public appearance together in May of that year, and four years later, they got engaged in May 2023. 

The bride-to-be opened up about the moment Bezos asked her to marry him in an interview featured in the November issue of Vogue.

She recalled how he popped the question on his yacht after they enjoyed a romantic dinner under the stars together.

Bezos hid the pink diamond engagement ring under her pillow, and she admitted that she almost ‘blacked out’ when she saw it. 

Sanchez said they were in the early stages of planning their nuptials, noting that she was more focused on the billionaire’s 60th birthday party.  

‘We’re still thinking about the wedding and what it’s going to be. Is it going to be big? Is it going to be overseas? We don’t know yet,’ she explained.

When most entrepreneurs are anointed as billionaires, a super-car or three is at the top of their shopping list.

Not so for Jeff Bezos. He marked his official billionaire status — attained in 1999 after Amazon went public on the stock market and was valued at $10.1 billion — by upgrading his battered old Chevy to a rather modest Honda Accord.

Famously frugal, Bezos never used to be one for luxury, even when his fortune hit the stratosphere. A Star Trek nerd, his office desk was made out of an old door raised on four pieces of wood, symbolising his forensic dedication to financial efficiency.

But this was all while he was married to his first wife, Princeton English graduate Mackenzie Scott, whom he divorced in 2019 after four children and 25 years of marriage.

Today — set to wed for the second time, to the cartoonishly pneumatic Lauren Sanchez, whom he’s been dating for four years — it’s fair to say Bezos has since leaned into his ‘master of the universe’ status with some aplomb.

The new Jeff — transformed into a buff and muscled hulk — has a life that is platinum-plated luxury from dawn to dusk, which 54-year-old Lauren clearly revels in.

Her life has been transformed by Bezos. She’s gone from the utter humiliation of being rejected as a big-haired 18-year-old for a job as an air hostess — because she was a few pounds too heavy — to ‘global philanthropist’.

With billions to give away at the tip of her artfully manicured fingernails — as well as to spend on herself — there’s no doubt she’s at the top of the Hollywood tree.

Her years on TV as a pretty local newsgirl are long forgotten now friends include other billionaires such as Oprah, Kim Kardashian and media mogul Barry Diller.

On Friday night Lauren, a qualified helicopter pilot, joined Prince Harry at the Living Legends of Aviation ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, where both received awards.

She later posted a picture of herself with the Prince, and gushed about him on Instagram, calling him part of a group ‘who shaped the history and future of flight’.

On the agenda later this year is an A-list Oscars party, hosted by Lauren. Then there will be her flight into space on Bezos’s very own rocket — plus, of course, their wedding (second time round for both parties), which is set to be a spectacle for the ages.

One can only wonder what her wedding gown will be like. If her current tastes are anything to go by, it could well be sheer or perhaps entirely see-through.

Indeed, earlier this month Lauren was in Paris and Milan squeezing herself into a succession of eye-popping slashed or transparent dresses to celebrate her fiance’s 60th birthday.

One rather risque catsuit exposed her thong-clad bottom, leading some U.S. commentators to say, rather unkindly, that the glowing Lauren looked like ‘a hooker’.

Regardless of the barbs, she and Bezos looked truly content.

‘Look who’s turning 60! Happy birthday, baby!’ Lauren wrote on Instagram.

‘Today is another day where your laughter fills our home, and that smile of yours lights up every room. Wishing you an abundance of simple joys and quiet moments of happiness.’

You could be forgiven for snorting at her choice of the words ‘simple joys’.

Bezos, the world’s third-richest man worth £137 billion, has, alongside a property empire which would make Croesus weep, built Koru, a $500 million (£394 million) yacht, with a busty figurehead on its prow that bears a striking resemblance to Lauren. Along with two commercial aircraft, the Koru — the tallest yacht ever built — costs £39 million a year to run. Its support vessel alone houses 45 staff and has its own submarine.

The mega yacht is possibly the most excessive display of wealth on the planet, but nothing, it seems, is ‘too much’ for Lauren, who delighted in spectacular shows of riches even as Amazon laid off 27,000 workers in 2022-3.

And if Bezos has had ‘quiet moments of happiness’, the sparky Lauren has more than likely snapped a picture of it and shared it on social media.

For Lauren fizzes with joy at her good fortune, stellar connections and ‘magical’ life — doubters be damned. She told Vogue last year she was so impressed she nearly ‘blacked out’ when Bezos gave her a £1.9 million 20-carat pink diamond engagement ring.

Barry Diller calls her ‘a sparkler in Jeff’s life’, and adds: ‘They’re very in love with each other — they’re demonstrably in love. She’s lit him up in the nicest ways. She’s a great stimulant.’

And just as the formerly weedy Bezos has pumped up — she says he now trains like a ‘monster’ — Lauren, too, appears transformed by her romance.

As she reaches her mid-50s, she’s never looked hotter — if by ‘hot’, you mean in a plumped-up, Kardashian kind of way.

Notably, her morning coffee comes in a mug which reads: ‘Woke up sexy as hell again.’

Some carp that her full-throttle beauty owes more than a little to cosmetic interventions. Observers note her lips are fuller, her complexion smoother, her skin ever-tauter than it was a decade ago.

There has also been unkind speculation about the shape of her earlobes — apparently a giveaway sign of a facelift.

But the fact is Lauren’s beauty and charisma won Bezos over before any cosmetic changes took place, and he remains captivated.

As for her current showgirl look — the very opposite of stealth wealth — Bezos says only: ‘It works for Jeff.’

Lauren told Vogue last year: ‘I really think I am coming into who I am and I know what feels good.’

What’s apparent from her life story is Lauren has always been impressively focused on self-improvement.

Born in 1969 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she wasn’t much of a student due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Aged 18, she moved to Los Angeles, hoping to become an air hostess at Southwest Airlines but at 8 st 9 lb, was 6lb too heavy.

She enrolled at a Californian college to study journalism. Thanks to a teacher who spotted her neurodiversity, she flourished, eventually winning a scholarship to the University of Southern California.

She left in 1994 before graduating after being offered a job as a host on a TV station in Phoenix, Arizona. A later internship led to a job on Fox Sports in LA and a job as a local news anchor.

Her love life bounced along at pace: she was said to be engaged to sports broadcaster Rory Markas, before relationships with NFL player Anthony Miller and, later, NFL star Tony Gonzalez, by whom she had son Nikko in 2001 before they split.

There was then a liaison with LA Lakers player Derek Fisher, before a minor entrée into showbusiness via actor Henry Simmons, star of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, to whom she was also reputedly engaged.

All this romantic restlessness finally ended when Lauren met the entertainment and media agent Patrick Whitesell, falling for him like a ton of bricks on first sight in 2004 and apparently rapidly ditching Simmons.

‘I’d always ask my friends: ‘How do you know it’s the right one?’ she sighed. ‘Then when I met Patrick, I told them: ‘I so get it.’

After meeting Whitesell, her own TV career became turbo-driven. In 2005, the year she and Whitesell married, she landed a job as host of So You Think You Can Dance, then in its first year.

Her wedding was on a scale to attract attention, attended by her husband’s clients, including actors Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba and Hugh Jackman, who sang Mack The Knife at the reception.

However, her time with So You Think You Can Dance ended when she was pregnant with son Evan in 2006. A friend recalls bosses were happy to give the role to Cat Deeley. Lauren’s take was that she was ousted unjustly, and even consulted high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred about legal action.

A TV source said: ‘Lauren was very smart, obviously very attractive, not particularly knowledgeable in dance, but she would ask all the right questions.

‘However, Lauren would not always pick up on what the answer was before moving on to the next question, and that gave the impression of not listening, connecting or empathising with the contestants.’

After her daughter, Ella, was born in 2008, Lauren returned to work in television, hosting the entertainment show Extra, and then a local LA morning news show from 2011-2017.

Through those years there was always plenty of energy for her family. Son Nikko remembers his extrovert mum would attend his high school football games in self-made outfits with his number on it, ringing a cowbell and cheering. ‘There was not a single year she wasn’t the ‘team mum’,’ he said.

Her qualification as a helicopter pilot came in 2011, no doubt inspired by her father, Ray, having been a flight instructor and a mechanic.

Ever resourceful, Lauren saw a commercial opportunity in her hobby in 2016 when she formed Black Ops Aviation, specialising in aerial filming.

Through her new gig, and perhaps with connections she made via her agent husband, Lauren consulted on Christopher Nolan’s film Dunkirk.

By this time, she had met Bezos. Her husband represented the actress Michelle Williams — star of the 2016 Amazon-distributed film Manchester By The Sea — and he and Bezos apparently worked closely together.

At some point, a plan took shape for her and Bezos to work together on a documentary about his space project, Blue Origin.

Described in the tabloids as ‘the $50 million alibi’, it was during its filming that the two enjoyed an eight-month affair.

The National Enquirer magazine trailed the lovers across five states and 40,000 miles as they enjoyed private jets, helicopter rides, romantic hikes and five-star hotel hideaways.

There were reports of red-hot texts and pictures shared between them. After such revelations, in January 2019 Bezos announced the end of his marriage to Mackenzie. Lauren also formally split from Whitesell after 14 years.

Home for Lauren today is a Beverly Hills mansion, bought by Bezos for $165 million (£130 milion) in 2020. There are also properties in Washington — where Bezos owns the Washington Post — Miami, and a huge ranch in Texas.

Sanchez says their lives are ‘pretty normal’ and ‘mostly revolve around the kids’. The couple share a personal trainer and enjoy working out together.

Inevitably, considering her newly acquired wealth, work has become focused on passion projects. Her production company, Adventure & Fellowship, is hoping to develop documentaries and features.

Last summer, there was a strife-filled 20-day shoot on a micro-budget film, The Golden Door, which included a cameo role for Bezos’s daughter.

It’s unclear if the film will be released: director Kellie Madison left the project, and there were reports Sanchez, a producer, was grand on set, riling her peers.

Her people offered the priceless response to criticism: ‘She was involved — she even brought her own jewellery for the actors to wear on film.’

Lauren is also writing a children’s book, The Fly That Flew, which was promised last year but never materialised. There are already several books which share either its title or its concept — a fly going into space — which may account for the delay.

Still, nothing deters Sanchez — who is either a ‘striver’ who can be a pain, or a positive ‘force’, depending who you speak to.

Philanthropy is a regular diversion: she and Bezos present the Bezos Award for Courage and Civility, where a £78 million grant is given to charities. Sanchez is also vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, which intends to spend £7.8 billion to try to solve the climate crisis, as well as being involved in the Day 1 Families Fund, for homeless families, and the Bezos Academy, which provides free pre-school education.

She said last year: ‘Right now, I’m immersing myself in philanthropy and strategic giving. I’ve always had a career very separate from my partner. I think now that I can work with my partner and be with him all the time . . .

‘We love to be together and we love to work together. He’s helping me with the book. He’s getting his pilot’s licence. We fly together. We work out together. We’re together all the time. Living with Jeff is like having a master class every day.’

And so, one might also conclude, is living with Lauren.

Lauren Sanchez has proven that a few harsh words won't get her down, ignoring Megyn Kelly's criticism as she showed off her legs in a sultry new Instagram post – just hours after the former Fox News host accused her because she looked like a 'whore'.

The fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid no attention to the brutal criticism when she posted the saucy photo and made no reference to 53-year-old Kelly's harsh comments in a recent podcast episode, in which she declared that Lauren, 54, was “like a whore' as she steps out in a daring lace ensemble in Milan.

In the photo, Sanchez poses in a sunset-inspired dress as she poses on a yacht with her bare legs sticking out. As she adjusts her gold heels, her beautiful engagement ring is on display.

“Golden hour,” she captioned the photo, which appears to have been taken aboard her billionaire fiancée's $500 million superyacht.

Sanchez was criticized on Kelly's Sirius XM podcast on Wednesday for her daring, sheer lace look as she stepped out in Milan for fashion week.

While some applauded the 54-year-old for embracing the “mafia woman” aesthetic, Kelly slammed her bold look.

“I'm sorry, she looks like a whore,” Kelly declared, after Sanchez wore a sheer Dolce & Gabbana lace dress with a black jacket draped around her shoulders.

“She now goes out in her lingerie,” raged the host of the Megyn Kelly Show.

“Is it the time to wear thong underwear and a sexy bra, with a layer of lace on top?” she said in disbelief, urging the journalist to be “more classy.”

“You're dating [one of] the richest men in the world. Try to be a little classy,” she said angrily. “Does everything have to be a revelation of your clearly overvalued assets?”

The podcast host insisted she was not a “prude” but wanted to make a comment because she feels “we are losing something as a society.”

Kelly also alluded to Sanchez having plastic surgery and said she looks “nothing” like her old photos.

“I don't know what she did to herself, but she doesn't look like she used to,” Kelly said.

“I don't know what happened to the cheeks,” she said, adding that Sánchez's “breasts are out” and “the face is pulled in, punctured.”

“I don't want my daughter watching that,” the mother of two continued. “And I don't want my son watching it either. But we did… it was hard to avoid.”

“She has Kim Kardashian's lips, she made her nose so thin it now looks like a pencil,” Kelly continued.

“She's got like, what looked to me like cheek implants…More and more young women are doing this.

'It's not about an objection to plastic surgery, it's about an obsession with turning yourself into a fake version of yourself… I think it's a sign of a mental illness.

'It's extremely disturbing. It's just a huge turn off for me. I really want to get into the heads of these young girls and say, 'Please don't do this,'” she said.

Sanchez has yet to respond to Kelly's harsh words, aside from her leg-baring Instagram post.

Sanchez and Bezos were in the Italian fashion capital to celebrate his 60th birthday and support her son, Nikko Gonzalez, at his first fashion show.