Jeff
Bezos and Lauren Sánchez arrive in Venice for divisive wedding
Nuptials of
Amazon founder and former TV journalist to kick off on Thursday as activists
continue to protest against event
Angela
Giuffrida in Venice
Wed 25 Jun
2025 17.01 BST
The
billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and the former TV journalist Lauren
Sánchez have arrived in Venice as they prepare to tie the knot in a lavish
three-day celebration that has divided the lagoon city.
Scores of
celebrities and other members of the world’s super-rich will also join the pair
in Italy, arriving on superyachts and private jets.
Bezos, the
world’s fourth-richest person, and Sánchez were seen stepping off a water taxi
on Wednesday as they entered the exclusive Aman Venice hotel on the Grand
Canal, where many of the celebrities will stay.
More than 90
private jets are expected to land in Venice before the celebrations officially
begin on Thursday, bringing in guests for an event that some have called the
“wedding of the century” and is rumoured to involve everything from pyjama
parties to elegant dinners.
Among the
first guests to arrive were Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, her husband, Jared
Kushner, and their children. The family are staying at the St Regis, close to
St Mark’s Square, one of a host of five-star hotels booked by the 200 or so
wedding guests.
According to
reports in the local press, some of the more low-profile invitees arrived even
earlier. Arience, a 60-metre yacht belonging to the American fund manager and
Amazon investor Bill Miller, moored by St Mark’s earlier this week.
Kismet, a
superyacht owned by Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American billionaire and the owner
of Fulham FC, is also moored in the city.
Venice
authorities are rolling out a huge security operation, including at Marco Polo
airport, as concerns rise over geopolitical instability and threats by
activists from the No Space for Bezos campaign group to clog the canals with
inflatable crocodiles in order to impede guests.
Other VIPs
believed to be on the guest list include Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Eva
Longoria and Orlando Bloom, and possibly Bill Gates, Mick Jagger and Elton
John.
If the sound
of wheeled suitcases being dragged along Venice’s narrow lanes is among the
bugbears of the city’s ever dwindling band of residents, local newspapers have
warned them to be prepared for the stacks of luggage Bezos’s guests will need
to bring containing the many outfits required for what they say will be “a
wedding in three acts”.
Details of
the celebrations are strictly under wraps and all staff involved have been
warned not to even mention the nuptials when speaking on the phone.
However, it
is believed the couple will exchange vows on Friday in San Giorgio Maggiore, a
16th-century basilica designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and
located on the Venetian island of the same name. The guests will get to admire
the basilica’s artistic gems, including Tintoretto’s The Last Supper, and enjoy
a concert in the tiny island’s amphitheatre as well as amble through its
kilometre-long maze.
The main
wedding reception is expected to be held on Saturday in the Arsenale, a
historic complex of shipyards surrounded by fortified walls. Photograph:
Hercules Milas/Alamy
The main
wedding reception is expected to be held on Saturday in the Arsenale, a
historic complex of shipyards surrounded by fortified walls. The big party was
originally supposed to take place in a 16th-century building in the centre of
the city but was switched due to security concerns.
The wedding,
said to be costing €40m-€48m (£34m-£41m), is the most high-profile to take
place in Venice since George and Amal Clooney were married in the city in 2014.
But while the Clooneys were welcomed, the Bezos nuptials have been far more
contentious, with posters featuring Bezos’s head on a rocket blasting into
space – in reference to his Blue Origin space tourism venture – pasted on walls
across the city.
Protesters
say the event risks turning the world heritage site, which has long suffered
from the effects of excessive tourism, into a playground for the rich.
Greenpeace
Italia and the British activist group Everyone Hates Elon have joined the
protests, unfurling a huge banner in St Mark’s Square on Monday with a picture
of Bezos laughing and a sign reading: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding
you can pay more tax.”
A similar
banner was pinned to a huge crane on Tuesday night in front of Hotel Danieli,
where some of the guests are staying, as part of a protest organised by
Extinction Rebellion activists dressed as Robin Hood.
“If a person
can buy Venice for their marriage, then it’s a person who has an inconceivable
amount of wealth, and who could therefore pay even more in tax,” said Jorge
Molina, a spokesperson for the group. “We ask that the rich are taxed more to
give hope to the planet.”
Sitting on a
bench close to St Mark’s Square, Demetrio, who was born in Venice, said he was
more annoyed with the protesters than he was with Bezos. “I missed the water
taxi home last night because the stop opposite the Danieli hotel was blocked
off,” he said. “We have always had rich people here, what about the Doges? Rich
people should be able to spend their money how they want. The protesters are
just envious that they don’t have that kind of wealth.”
A local
artist known as Picchio said: “I don’t really know who this Bezos fellow is,
but what is wrong with him getting married here? It’s a beautiful city to get
married in – I got married here too.”
Venice’s
millionaire mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, has said the wedding will bring great riches
to the city and has condemned the protesters as “shameful”. Simone Venturini,
the city’s tourism councillor, said the objections voiced by “a few dozen
professional protesters” were driven by a desire for media attention. “Each
year we host hundreds of events and celebrations, many of which have an even
greater impact on the city,” he added.
Bezos will
make sizeable charity donations, including €1m towards a project that studies
Venice’s lagoon system, according to reports in the Corriere della Sera
newspaper and the news agency Ansa.
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