VIPs are descending on Venice for the lavish wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez—though President Donald Trump won’t be among them.
The Amazon billionaire invited Trump to attend the ceremony this weekend in Italy as part of a charm offensive aimed at winning lucrative government contracts following the president’s sensational falling out with Bezos’ business rival Elon Musk. Trump isn’t expected to make an appearance, however, due to scheduling conflicts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have already arrived in Venice for the nuptials of Bezos, 61, and Sánchez, 55. The couple is expected to welcome about 250 guests to their wedding—estimated to cost up to $56 million, according to Reuters—despite protests from locals who have angrily demonstrated against the event.
Those protesters declared victory this week as Bezos and Sánchez were forced to move one party for their wedding on Saturday night from the extravagant Scuola Grande della Misericordia to the Arsenale, farther from the heart of Venice, according to the BBC.
Undeterred by the backlash, several A-listers have already been spotted in the lagoon city.
Kim Kardashian, sister Khloé, and their momager, Kris Jenner, have all made their arrival. Jenner’s boyfriend, Corey Gamble, arrived earlier in the week. They were seen on Thursday with actor Orlando Bloom—who is reported to be attending the wedding without his fiancée, Katy Perry, who flew to the edge of space alongside Sánchez on one of Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets in April.
Oprah Winfrey was pictured boarding a boat after her private jet landed at Venice’s Marco Polo airport on Thursday. Right behind Winfrey was her best friend, CBS anchor Gayle King, who was also part of Sánchez’s all-female space stunt.
NFL legend Tom Brady—who has become pals with his neighbor Bezos in Miami’s Indian Creek gated community—has also touched down in Italy.
Earlier in the week, fashion designer Diane Von Fürstenberg was pictured at the airport, as was her billionaire husband, Barry Diller (Diller is the chairman and senior executive of IAC, which owns The Daily Beast).
Another billionaire, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is reported to be attending, but he has not yet been seen arriving in Venice. Other notable figures expected to be at the wedding, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Mick Jagger, have also yet to surface.
