The Met Gala has probably the most exclusive invite list of any celebrity event. Securing a seat is a once-in-a-lifetime event for some famous people; whereas, others make such an iconic impact that they become longstanding staples. However, there are a surprising number of famous faces you likely won’t see at this year’s Met Gala.

Here are 8 famous people who were allegedly banned or disinvited from the Met Gala:

1. In 2019, Billy Porter made an unforgettable Met Gala debut in his Egyptian sun god-inspired look by The Blonds. There’s no doubt that Billy’s red carpet looks — particularly his history-making gown from the 2019 Oscars — have cemented his status as a fashion icon, so it was shocking when he wasn’t invited to the 2025 Met Gala, where the theme was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. In 2026, he told the SiriusXM radio show Bevelations, “No, I’m not going. I have not been invited. I haven’t been invited back since 2019.”

Billy continued, “That’s the only time I’ve ever gone and the only time I’ve ever been invited, and I was invited by Ryan Murphy that year. Last year was Black dandyism, and I was not invited. I’m just going to throw that out there. I’m good. It’s all good. But the reality is, when people ask me, you need to know, I was not invited, and I’m good, and I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome. I have earned the invitation, and it’s okay that I don’t have it because there’s a level that I’ve reached that doesn’t require validation from the outside. So I’m gonna sit and live in that because it helps keep me sane, too.”

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2. Former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has only officially banned one person from the Met Gala, and she low-key used her powers for good! On a 2017 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, the host asked Anna, “Who would you never invite back to the Met Gala?” She answered, “Donald Trump.” As the audience cheered, James replied, “That is a great answer.”

3. Some people theorize that crossing Anna Wintour lands you on the Met’s do-not-invite list. In 2021, Tim Gunn told E!’s Fashion Police that reports that he got disinvited from the Met Gala were “very true.” He said, “It is a crazy story, and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a very matter-of-fact story. I was asked, ‘What is the most unforgettable thing I’ve ever seen in fashion?’ And I said, ‘It’s easy. It was watching Anna Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs by two bodyguards — two big, hulking men — from a fashion show.’ Well, all hell broke loose. It was insane. So we’ve had an open war ever since.”

4. In 2024, designer and The Real Housewives of New York City cast member Rebecca Minkoff told the podcast Two Ts in a Pod, “I knew Jenna [Lyons] from just being in fashion and making a huge mistake and taking an elevator with her and Anna Wintour, and that was the end of my relationship with Anna, ’cause you’re not allowed in the elevator with Anna… So, there’s a rule, I’ve been told, that if she gets in the elevator, you can’t get in with her… [She and Jenna] were cohosting an event together when Jenna was at J.Crew, and this was, like, 15 years ago. And I was just excited to be invited to anything, and I just was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get in the elevator. How’s it going?'”

Rebecca tried to talk to Anna. She continued, “I was like, ‘Hello! How’s everyone feeling today? Is everyone…’ You know I was all [chipper]… She just looked down and got silent. It was awkward. And I was like, ‘Right, right, I must’ve missed the memo somewhere.’ … I’m still thinking of it 15 years later. I’m like, ‘Maybe that’s why, you know, I’ve never been invited to the Met Gala.’ I don’t know. Maybe it’s ’cause I got into the elevator with her.”

5. In 2007, designer Rachel Zoe told the New York Times, “Anna Wintour is one of my heroes, but they say that I’m more influential. As great as it is, Vogue won’t change a designer’s business. But if an unknown brand is worn by a certain person in a tabloid, it will be the biggest designer within a week.” Afterwards, rumors swirled that she’d been banned from the Met Gala over her comments.

However, if the rumors were true, the alleged ban didn’t last very long. Rachel attended the Met Gala in 2010 and 2012.

6. It’s allegedly not just Anna Wintour’s feelings that celebs need to be concerned about. In a 2022 Instagram story post, Lili Reinhart — who’s been to the Met Gala several times — criticized Kim Kardashian‘s comments about her dangerous and unhealthy decision to crash diet ahead of the Met Gala. Lili said, “So wrong. So ****** on 100s of levels. To openly admit to starving yourself for the sake of the Met Gala. When you know very well that millions of young men and women are looking up to you and listening to your every word. To walk on a red carpet and do an interview where you say how starving you are … because you haven’t eaten carbs in the last month … all to fit in a ******* dress?”

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A few months later, Lili told W magazine, “[Attending the Met Gala] was fun. But after going again this year, I don’t think I’ll be invited back. I said a certain something about a certain person in a certain dress. I have always wanted to stand for something. And while I don’t like it if one comment by me turns into 17 articles in People magazine, I never overthink what I post. It has to be a true representation of how I feel. And I would say that whether I had 100 followers or 100 million.”

7. Not everyone who’s been booted from the Met Gala was an attendee. A few years ago, a model was fired for essentially being too hot! During the 2023 Met Gala, Eugenio Casnighi — who was working as a greeter — went viral for his striking looks. In a 2024 TikTok, he alleged, “I just got fired from the Met Gala.” Over a montage of his viral moments, he added, “Remember me?”

He continued, “So, I’ve never talked about this because I was under [an] NDA. It’s funny enough they fired me, so I can say whatever I want now. What happened, I’ve been working for the Met Gala as a model and greeter [in] 2022 and 2023, and I was supposed to do it this year. Today — just to give an idea — today’s Friday, and the Met Gala is on Monday. And they let me know today that they cut me off. They fired me because I went viral last year. So they said, so basically, they said, ‘You made it about yourself, so we can’t have you work there anymore. So I’m sorry, you got, like, laid off, fired, whatever you wanna call it.’ Like, last year they told me that I was going to be with Kylie Jenner the [whole] night, and I helped her, you know, like, whatever she needed.”

8. The late André Leon Talley, who was the first Black man to hold the position of creative director at Vogue, was Vogue’s official Met Gala red carpet interviewer for a long time. However, according to the Hollywood Reporter, in 2018, he was abruptly replaced by YouTube star Liza Koshy — a decision he alleged was due to his age. The situation reportedly led to a falling out between André and Anna Wintour.

In his 2020 memoir The Chiffon Trenches, André wrote, “After decades of loyalty and friendship, and going through the peaks and valleys of the chiffon trenches, Anna should have had the decency and kindness to call me or send me an e-mail saying, ‘André, I think we have had a wonderful run with your interviews, but we are going to try something new.’ I would have accepted that. It was absolutely fine to take another direction, younger, a blogger or Instagram star with seventeen million followers. I understand; nothing lasts forever. Simple human kindness. No, she is not capable.”

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And now, here are 9 famous people who would reject an invitation to the Met Gala:

9. In 2026, current NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed reports that he and his wife, animator and illustrator Rama Duwaji, would be breaking tradition by skipping the Met Gala. He told Hell Gate, “That’s true. … I love the Met. I think that it’s an incredible museum. I recently saw The Thomas Crown Affair, which, have you seen it? … Incredible movie. I hadn’t seen it before. And I think they’re a critical part of the city. My focus is also on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable, and that’s what I’m looking to spend a lot of my time focused on.”

10. Former Vogue political correspondent and current congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg attended the Met Gala in 2017 with his mom, Caroline Kennedy, but he called for a boycott of the Met Gala in 2025. On TikTok, he said, “Hey Anna Wintour! I am boycotting the Met Gala this year with so much happening at home and around the world. It’s not the time for a party like that, at least for me. So, I am boycotting the Met Gala this year. … I think others should as well. It is not the time for a party like that. I am boycotting the Met Gala. No Met Gala.”

In a follow-up TikTok, he said, “I’m not going to the Met Gala this year. I’m Jack. I love to party, and I’ve been to the Met Gala before. I had a great time. But this year, with so much happening around the world and at home, I cannot in good conscience go to the Met Gala. Instead, I’ll be launching something brand new, something of my own, something important and informative.” In the caption, he added, “Launching my own network.”

11. In 2016, Zayn Malik made his Met Gala debut in custom Armani alongside his then-partner, Gigi Hadid, who’s a staple at the event. However, two years later, he told GQ, “I did go, but I didn’t go there to be like, ‘Yo, take me serious.’ I was taking the ****! I went there as my favorite Mortal Kombat character, Jax. The Met Gala is not necessarily anything that I ever knew about or was about. But my [former] stylist…would say to me, ‘This is really good for you to do.’ And no matter how strong you are mentally, you can always be swayed to do certain things. Now, it’s not something I would go to. I’d rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet.… To do the self-indulgent Look at me, I’m amazing thing on the red carpet, it’s not me.”

He added, “I get it, and I understand that people gain enjoyment from it. … Gi stole the night, though. The stained glass on her dress. Everyone else just put a cross on.”

12. SZA attended the Met Gala in 2018 and 2022, but during her second experience, she was so “overwhelmed” that she left early. She told Finish Line’s Community Voices, “I hated my outfit. That was another mental health thing. You want to do your job, you want to show up, and all these people are excited for you to be there, but it’s like, ‘****, I don’t feel confident,’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable,’ or it’s like, ‘Oh, if my dress doesn’t fit…,’ and then there’s all this weird comparison, and it’s really unhealthy. And it’s like, ****, some people, like Lizzo, can have a really good time regardless of what is happening.”

“For me, it’s like, I snuck out the back as soon as Lenny Kravitz hit the stage because I was feeling very like, ‘Whoa, my anxiety’s going crazy.’ So much so that I couldn’t walk down the main steps to exit. I took a cab. I walked, like, three city blocks with no shoes on… I just tiptoed a couple blocks and caught a yellow cab back to my hotel because I was just overwhelmed. I had too much anxiety to wait for my cab in front of the crowd and take pictures and all those things. I didn’t want to do that. So I was looking like a little dirty Cinderella running away with my shoes,” she said.

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13. Tina Fey attended the 2010 Met Gala in Yves Saint Laurent. Appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman five years later, she said, “It is such a jerk parade. Like, you cannot even… It is so unbelievable. And then, clearly, I’ll never go again, but you go, and you go into this beautiful space, and it’s just every jerk from every walk of life is there, wearing, like, some stupid thing. And you walk up these huge steps, and I went, and I dragged my husband along with me, too, which I’m still, uh, in trouble for… We walk down this big, long hallway, and we were walking about 10 feet behind this very famous, famously mean fashion designer… We walked into just…just a fart cloud. This famous man, just the most toxic, toxic gas.”

14. In 2007, Jennifer Garner made her Met Gala debut, but she never returned. In 2023, she told Vogue, “I went to the Met ball exactly one time. I found it a little scary, so I haven’t been back. But I wore — that night — this magical red Valentino gown. And I was [Valentino Garavani’s] date, and that was really majestic and special.”

15. Singer/dancer/model/daughter of Madonna, Lourdes Leon, made her Met Gala debut in 2021. She wore Moschino by Jeremy Scott and showed off her armpit hair. However, she later told Interview magazine, “Did I have fun at the Met Gala? I’m really grateful to have been able to go. Maybe because it was my first time, but it felt crazy. You’re just shoved into a room with all these famous people, and you’re supposed to talk to them and be their friend, even though you don’t ******* know them. That’s not my vibe.”

She continued, “I’m sure it’s fun if you’re someone who is friends with a lot of famous people, but I’m not. I didn’t know who the **** to talk to. I felt so awkward that I literally called my boyfriend in the middle of it, but the dinner was fine. I mean, I was sitting with Jeremy O. Harris, who I love, and Irina Shayk, who I love a lot. She’s so funny.”

16. At the 2006 Met Gala, John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten of the *** Pistols) was reportedly so mad that his assigned seat was at the end of a long table that he stormed out of the ball not once, but twice, and swore at Met staff. After a while, he sat down, and Anna Wintour herself came over to placate him.

17. And finally, Gwyneth Paltrow has been to several Met Galas, but in 2013, she told USA Today, “I’m never going again. It was so un-fun. It was boiling. I did not enjoy it at all.” She also told Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O, “Do you want me to be honest? It sucked. It seems like it’s the best thing in the world, you always think, ‘Oh my god, it’s gonna be so glamorous and amazing, and you’re going to see all these people,’ and then you get there, and it’s so hot, and it’s so crowded, and everyone’s pushing you.”

However, she ended up attending the Met Gala two more times. In a recent Goop post, she reflected on her 2019 Met Gala appearance. She said, “I was excited to work with Chloé. I have sort of a love-hate relationship with the Met Ball that’s well documented.”

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