While we now know her best as Jeff Bezos‘s better half, when Lauren Sánchez was young, she was a regular on Hollywood’s red carpets.

The New Mexico native moved to Los Angeles in her early 20s to kickstart her career as a reporter and TV host. There, she became a young mom, married businessman Patrick Whitsell, welcomed two more kids, and had a successful television career.

After founding her aerial film and production company, Black Ops Aviation, in 2016, her life changed when Bezos hired her company to film footage for his space company, Blue Origin. In 2018, while both were married to other people, they began an affair that became public in 2019. 

Once they ended their marriage, Bezos and Sánchez stopped hiding their romance and became the high-profile couple we know today.

Ahead of their upcoming wedding, we’re looking back at Sánchez’s younger years and her life before she met Bezos.

Below, see all the best photos of Sánchez’s evolution through the years.