My tortured life as Lauren Sanchez: Death threats and obscene requests… it’s unlocked a whole new world for me

A Miami-based content creator named Lauren Sanchez has been inundated with death threats after being repeatedly confused for the wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Sanchez, a 22-year-old student at Florida International University, said she is constantly tagged in social media posts meant for former journalist Sánchez Bezos, 56.

From the Met Gala earlier this week, which was largely funded by the Bezos power couple, to the star’s 11-minute space trip on the Blue Odyssey last April, the college student admitted that the misdirected attention has been a blessing and a curse.

Speaking out for the first time to the Daily Mail, Sanchez revealed the dazzling benefits as well as the harsh pitfalls of bearing the same name as the journalist-turned-philanthropist, including almost having her Instagram account banned for impersonation.

‘I do like having the engagement that comes to my account because it’s how I make money,’ she said.

‘But at the same time, I feel like there’s a limit. I don’t like seeing the negative comments and that is something I don’t want to associate myself with.’   

Sanchez posts under the Instagram username ‘laaurenvs,’ and her account is second to appear on the platform when the name Lauren Sanchez is searched.  

The furor surrounding the case of mistaken identity reached a fever pitch in the last week of June 2025 when tech tycoon Bezos, 62, married Sánchez Bezos in a no-expense-spared wedding in Venice, Italy.

The wedding, which garnered worldwide attention, caused Sanchez’s phone to freeze due to the overwhelming amount of misdirected social media notifications. 

‘It got to the point where I couldn’t go on my Instagram,’ she said. ‘It was glitching out because I was getting tagged [in] literally everything.

‘I woke up one day and I gained thousands of followers, I had thousands of views on my Instagram story, and my posts were just skyrocketing.

‘I had hundreds of DMs from people asking me random stuff that I have no idea about like, “Why would you do your wedding in Italy?” and “Where’s your wedding dress from?”‘

Sanchez claimed that even Vogue was caught up in the chaos and confusion.

‘Vogue tagged me in a lot of their posts, but I believe that they removed my tag because they realized,’ she said. ‘I think a lot of people were confused about her Instagram handle.’

The confusion was likely a result of the new bride changing her Instagram username to include her new surname, Bezos, on June 27, the day she tied the knot.

Sánchez Bezos also wiped her Instagram account of all her previous uploads before she posted the first image of her and Bezos on their wedding day. 

The Daily Mail has contacted Vogue for comment. 

As online attention soared, so did the negative comments and abusive messages meant that were for the billionaire’s wife but delivered to the student instead.

‘Some messages said, “Kill yourself,” “You’re fat,” “You’re ugly.” Just a whole bunch of hate comments,’ Sanchez told the Daily Mail.

If that wasn’t enough, Sanchez claimed that her Instagram account was almost removed by Meta after it was flagged for impersonation.

She claimed she had to pay for verification to avoid having her profile taken down.

‘Instagram messaged me saying that I was trying to impersonate someone,’ she alleged. ‘I messaged them back to tell them that I wasn’t impersonating anyone and that I really am Lauren Sanchez.’

Meta rolled out subscription-based verified badges in 2023 to help users protect their brand and protect against impersonation. A standard subscription is priced at $14.99 a month.

On top of paying for her blue Instagram check mark, Sanchez said she has installed measures to filter out the abusive messages, keeping her platform as positive as possible.

Sanchez explained that she initially became aware of her namesake in her youth after she Googled her own name.

‘When I was younger, I always knew there was some lady named Lauren Sánchez,’ she shared.

‘I was always like, “Who is this lady? I thought I was the only Lauren Sanchez!” Now that I’m older, I know who she is’  

Sanchez initially poked fun at the namesake.

Two years ago, she participated in a ‘nepo baby’ TikTok trend, which saw social media users reveal their ‘famous’ relatives.

As a joke, Sanchez uploaded a photo of herself and then put a picture of Bezos and his now-wife on a red carpet.

‘I just thought it was super funny because we had the first name and last name – and that video, literally took off,’ the student said.

The TikTok amassed half a million views and drew in a mix of responses. Some people, she claimed, expressed jealousy that she was ‘living the life,’ while others, who clearly didn’t get the joke, left hate comments such as ‘you’re terrible and your family’s terrible.’

Despite sharing the same name and being at the receiving end of all that comes with it, Sanchez has largely refrained from reading into her namesake’s life.

‘I know she’s very controversial, but I don’t really know much about her,’ Sanchez said. ‘Same with Jeff Bezos. I don’t really keep up with them. They’re not that important to me.’

Ultimately, Sanchez has zero plans to change her name.

‘I’m not doing that,’ she insisted. ‘Because it’s my name, too.’