Lauren Sánchez Jokingly Told Jeff Bezos He Didn't Have to Send Her to Space If He Didn't Want to Marry Her

• Lauren Sánchez was part of Blue Origin's first all-female flight crew who made a trip into space inside the New Shepard rocket on Monday, April 14
• Following the historic expedition, Sánchez — who is engaged to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos — joked about having said, "Jeff, if you don't want to marry me, you don't have to send me to space"
• The couple is reportedly set to marry this summer in Italy

Lauren Sánchez is joking about the reason her fiancé Jeff Bezos gave her a seat aboard Blue Origin's latest flight.

Moments after taking a historic trip into space with Flight NS-31 as part of Blue Origin's first all-female flight crew, Sánchez, 55, spoke to journalist Charissa Thompson about the emotional experience.

At one point, she teared up as she recalled saying goodbye to Bezos — founder of Blue Origin — before taking off inside the New Shepard rocket.

"Seeing Jeff before I left, I just went, 'Oof,' " she said, before breaking into a laugh. "Like, you know, I had to come back — I mean, we're getting married. If I didn't come back, that would be a bummer for me."

Thompson then revealed the joke that Sánchez shared with her ahead of the flight.

"Only you, by the way, would say this to me. You said, 'Jeff, if you don't want to marry me, you don't have to send me to space,' " Thompson said, prompting Sánchez to laugh and exclaim, "You don't have to send me to space!"

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Elsewhere during the conversation, the journalist and author expressed the range of emotions she felt amid the eight-minute expedition, during which she was joined by five other passengers who included singer Katy Perry, TV personality Gayle King and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen.

"It was a feeling of joy and camaraderie. It was a feeling of gratefulness. It was a feeling of, 'We're doing this,' " the bride-to-be told Thompson.

As for what she witnessed, she said, "Earth looked so … it was so quiet. It was just quiet."

Sánchez told Thompson the experience surpassed any expectations she had.

"I don't think you can describe it. It was quiet but also really alive. And you look at it, and you're like, 'We're all in this together.' All I could think about it is, 'We're so connected — more connected than you realize,' " she said.

Now that her much-anticipated space journey has happened, Sánchez will likely be switching into wedding planning mode. Last month, PEOPLE confirmed that she and the 61-year-old Amazon founder — who got engaged in May 2023 — had sent out their wedding invitations to their guests.

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Per Page Six, the invitations state that the pair will be tying the knot this summer in Italy. Previous reports claimed the nuptials might take place off the coast of Venice on the couple's $500 million yacht named Koru in June.

Sánchez's older brother Paul has teased that the wedding celebration will be a royal affair. "I think it's gonna be like a Princess Di thing," he told TMZ in March, referring to Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding to then Prince Charles. "Just huge and fun, and just a blast."