Jeff Bezos’ partner Lauren Sanchez says she was told she was ‘too heavy’ to be a flight attendant, only to find another - even more bada** - way of getting into the skies.
Sanchez, 53, has forged a successful career as an entertainment reporter and news anchor, having also served as a guest host on The View.
Super casually, she also happens to be a helicopter pilot.
But it turns out the aviation industry hasn’t always been so welcoming for Sanchez, who is the long-term girlfriend of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, she has spoken about various career paths she tried to pursue in the past, explaining how there were a number of obstacles that held her back.
When she was younger, Sanchez dreamed of being a journalist, but struggled with grades thanks to undiagnosed dyslexia.
After leaving home at 18, she headed to Los Angeles to become a flight attendant, only to be told she was 'too heavy'.
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Speaking about a failed mandatory weigh-in in 1989 at Southwest Airlines – which was something that was apparently common for many airlines at the time – Sanchez said: “Back then, they weighed you, and I weighed 121 pounds.
“They said, ‘You need to be 115.’”
Sanchez said she knows what she would have told them if it happened to her now: “I don’t want to be a stewardess. I want to be the pilot!”
She then went on to enroll in El Camino College in Torrance, California, where a journalism teacher realised her low grades weren’t reflective of her intelligence.
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Sanchez continued: “I cry every time I tell this story: I got tested [for learning differences] and [the teacher said], ‘You’re not dumb. You’re just dyslexic. Let me give you tools on how to write’.”
She said the kind actions from the teacher, who also gave her a pocket dictionary to keep on her at all times, changed her life adding: “I went from barely a 2.0 student to the dean’s list and got a scholarship to USC.”
Along with a solid career in journalism, in 2016, Sanchez also founded Black Ops Aviation - one of the first female-owned aerial film and production companies, having realised she was one of few women doing the job.
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She now often flies Bezos and their family around the world, and says she tries to get into the cockpit at least three times a week.
“I don’t know why more women don’t do it,” she said.
Topics: Celebrity, Jeff Bezos
Jess Hardiman