Celebrity3 min(s) read
Published 15:41 05 May 2026 GMT
The biggest event in the fashion calendar has faced brutal backlash this year over the involvement of Amazon’s billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos, sparking some high-profile invitees to boycott the event.
Many A-listers were spotted missing from Monday’s Met Gala amid tension over its controversial honorary chairs and lead sponsors, Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos.
Their appointment came as no surprise to industry insiders after the couple’s Venice wedding last year, which was attended by some of the most important people in fashion and entertainment, while also making the pages of Vogue.
However, in the weeks leading up to Monday night’s extravaganza, posters appeared around New York urging people to “boycott the Bezos Met Gala”, and critical content outing the billionaires behind the event was widely shared online.
An activist group called Everyone Hates Elon, which boasts over 247,000 Instagram followers, planted around 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, in a reference to complaints by Amazon workers that they have had to urinate in bottles instead of taking bathroom breaks.
Bella Hadid, a member of fashion royalty alongside her sister Gigi, waived her inevitable invite this year. She made her thoughts on the event clear by liking a video on Instagram calling out celebrities who planned to attend this year’s gala, particularly those who may wear “ICE OUT” protest pins, noting Bezos’ ties to President Donald Trump.
New York City’s mayor himself, Zohran Mamdani, confirmed before the event that he would not be attending, unlike many of his predecessors. He said in an interview that he wants instead to focus on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable.”
Actor Taraji P Henson, star of Empire, and attendee of last year’s gala, commented on the video: “I am so confused by some ppl that are going. I am just like WTF ARE WE DOING!?!?!?!” She later reposted a picture to her Instagram story, calling out the wealth disparity between Bezos and Amazon warehouse workers.
The same Instagram video was liked by model and actor Cara Delevingne, who has attended the gala many times over her career.
One of the most surprising celebrities not to attend this year was Meryl Streep, as she played the lead character in a film exposing the injustices of the fashion world, The Devil Wears Prada 2, which was released in cinemas this week.
