Before she hooked up with one of the world’s richest men, erstwhile news anchor, occasional entertainment reporter and former “So You Think You Can Dance” host Lauren Sánchez was married for more than a dozen years to another rich and powerful man, showbiz heavy hitter Patrick Whitesell, the executive chairman of talent and media colossus Endeavor.
After a successful six-year stint managing top talent at Creative Artists Agency, Whitesell, moved in the early Aughts over to Endeavor Talent Agency where he went on to help Ari Emanuel orchestrate the 2009 merger between Endeavor and the William Morris Agency. Initially named William Morris Endeavor, the many-tentacled entertainment agency was renamed to Endeavor in 2017, and, earlier this year, when Endeavor went public, Bloomberg reported that Emanuel and Whitesell together controlled shares worth almost $840 million.
While married, Sánchez and Whitesell had a couple of kids together — they also each had a child from a previous relationship — and they regularly hobnobbed with celebs and other power players and titans of business. (It was, oddly enough, Whitesell who introduced Sánchez to Bezos in 2016!) In 2006, the then newly wedded couple shelled out $11 million for a gated and then brand-new hilltop estate nipped down a barely-there cul-de-sac high in the mountains above Beverly Hills. In the fall of 2017, Whitesell dropped another $4.8 million on a vacant piece of property next door.
It wasn’t too long after that the marriage fizzled and Sánchez filed for divorce on the day after Bezos’ divorce was finalized in April 2019. Sánchez is still with Bezos — she’s been spotted wearing some pretty big sparklers and was referred to as his fiancee in a court filing though no engagement has been announced, and word on the street is Whitesell secretly married Chilean-born Australian soap-story actress Pia Miller early this year. (Both have been spotted wearing what appear to be wedding rings and Pia changed her last name to Whitesell on her social media, but no marriage has been officially announced.) So, with everyone moved on, and everyone financed up the wazoo, it’s not too much of a surprise that Whitesell has opted to sell the Beverly Hills home he long shared with his former wife, which has just come to market at nearly $22 million. (The still-vacant neighboring parcel can be acquired for an additional $5 million.)
Listings held by Kurt Rappaport at Westside Estate Agency generously describe the 1.27-acre city-view spread as “reminiscent of the south of France,” with five bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms in nearly 11,000 square feet spread across the two-story main house, which sits atop a six-car subterranean garage, and detached two-story guesthouse and recreation pavilion.