Rosie O’Donnell slams Jeff Bezos’ lavish wedding, calling it ‘gross’
Rosie O’Donnell slammed Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s recent wedding, calling it “gross excess” in a post on her Substack newsletter.
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For most weddings, well-wishes for the newlyweds are a common courtesy. But Rosie O’Donnell is bucking tradition.
The outspoken comedian and TV personality, 63, blasted the high-profile wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and media entrepreneur Lauren Sánchez in a poem-style letter shared to her Substack newsletter on June 29. Bezos and Sánchez, whose lavish nuptials in Italy sparked controversy and protests, were married in a star-studded ceremony in Venice on June 27.
“The BEZOS wedding, it turned my stomach. Seeing all these billionaires gathering in the gross excess of it all,” O’Donnell wrote. “Is Oprah friends with Jeff Bezos? Really — how is that possible? He treats his employees with disdain. By any metric he is not a nice man.”
Winfrey was among the many famous faces in attendance at Bezos and Sánchez’s wedding, which boasted an A-list guest list that included Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Bill Gates, Kris Jenner and Brooks Nader.
O’Donnell also aimed at Sánchez, whom she described as Bezos’ “fake fembot wife.” The former talk show host’s letter also included a before-and-after photo of Sánchez that appeared to criticize her use of plastic surgery.
“Why would he choose her after the salt of the earth Mackenzie,” O’Donnell continued, referring to Bezos’ first wife, author and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. He “sold his soul is what it looks like from here. The devil is smiling at all his conquests.”
O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January following the 2024 election victory of President Donald Trump, also referenced the Republican president’s proposed “big, beautiful bill,” as well as other sociopolitical issues such as LGBTQ rights in the U.S. and the humanitarian crisis of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Bezos was raised by a single mother. He knows exactly what he does,” O’Donnell wrote. “So do all of his guests — posing for photos, forgetting themselves in their designer outfits. Ready for a Vogue cover, a spot on ‘ET,’ more worthless performative nonsense.”
She added: “We have become numb to gross excess. We have learned to tolerate it: celebrity worship, devoid of humanity.”
In the weeks leading up to Bezos and Sánchez’s luxury wedding, several protesters — comprised of local anti-tourist activists, members of Greenpeace Italy and the U.K. group “Everyone hates Elon” (Musk) — took to the streets to air their grievances, arguing that city authorities were prioritizing tourism over resident needs, per Reuters.
The celebrity nuptials similarly caused an uproar on social media, with one user describing the wedding as the face of “oligarchy.”
“There is something wrong here. There can be no denying,” O’Donnell concluded. “Something inside has died, and I can’t hide. I just can’t fake it.”
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, Jay Stahl, Saman Shafiq and Charles Trepany, USA TODAY
