Lauren Sánchez, 54, says she used to think life would be 'over at 50' as a woman

• Lauren Sánchez, 54, says she never expected to have so much to look forward to in life after turning 50.
• "When I was 20, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, life is over at 50,'" she said on the "Today" show.
• Apart from her wedding to Jeff Bezos, Sánchez also has a space flight to look forward to.

These days, Lauren Sánchez, 54, thinks that growing older is a gift.

During a "Today" show interview on Wednesday, Sánchez told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie that she never thought she would have so much to look forward to at this point in her life.

"I never thought at 54 — I'm going to be 55 — that I'd be an author, that I'd be getting married. I mean, life is just beginning," Sánchez said. "When I was 20, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, life is over at 50.' Let me tell you: It is not, ladies. It is not over."

Sánchez also said that life "just gets better and better" as she grows older.

"When women are like, 'Oh, What is it like turning 50?' I was like, 'It's just the beginning,'" she added.

In May last year, news broke that Sánchez had gotten engaged to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple first went public with their relationship in 2019, shortly after Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, divorced.

Although Sanchez did not share any details about when their wedding would be, she said she was "very excited" and had already started thinking about her dress.

"I do have a Pinterest, I'm just like every other bride. So I do have a Pinterest board," she said.

In addition to her wedding, Sánchez also has a flight to space to look forward to, although it is unclear when the trip will happen. She first announced her plans to go to space in 2022.

While she didn't divulge any details about the all-female crew who will be accompanying her to space, she referred to them during the "Today" interview as a group of "explorers."

"When we think of women, a lot of times we don't think of them as explorers," she said. "We think of Magellan and Jacques Cousteau, but we're explorers."

The mother-of-three shared that it was Bezos who first used the word "explorer" to describe her, and it changed the way she perceived herself and other women.

"He goes, 'You know, you're an explorer.' I was like, what? He goes, 'Yes. You're a pilot. You like to see the world,'" Sánchez said, recalling Bezo's words. "And I never thought of myself as an explorer. And when he said, 'Okay, why don't you take an incredible group of women up?' I was like, I'm picking all explorers so that they could come back and tell their story about how going to space changes them."

This isn't the first time that a high-profile individual has spoken about embracing aging.

In March, Anne Hathaway, 42, chose to do "The Idea of You" because she wanted to "tell the story of a woman blooming."

"I don't know why we don't have more stories about human beings blooming at any age. We're always coming of age, all the time," she said.

In August, Oprah Winfrey, 70, shared on the "Today" show that she wasn't worried about getting older because she wants to live in the present.

"I'm excited to make every number. I remember many, many years ago as a young girl, I had always thought that I would never make it to the 60s or 70s," Winfrey said.

A representative for Sánchez did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.