The Met Gala is one of the most exclusive events of the year, with many stars scrambling to get an invite.
But there are some celebrities and people of note who will be snubbing this year’s event entirely, whether it be because Met Gala chair Anna Wintour has “banned” them, they are boycotting it, or they are simply not bothered.
Read on to see the faces we likely won’t be seeing on the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday of May, 2026.
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Donald Trump
Though there is no official list of people who have been banned from the Met Gala, Anna Wintour has specifically named one person as someone whom she would never invite.
In 2017 interview with James Corden in his show’s segment Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts, the first person she thought of when she was asked which celebrity she would never, ever invite was the two-time President of the United States of America.
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She was spared providing a reason why due to the lightning-round nature of the interview.
Billy Porter
Everyone knows it’s not a red carpet event without Billy Porter absolutely blowing it out of the water with his unique outfits, but the Met Gala is simply going to have to go without his magic.
The actor, 56, has only attended one Met Gala in his career, when he was invited by Ryan Murphy in 2019 for the gala themed Camp: Notes on Fashion.
He more than outdid himself, entering the event dripping in gold in “a bejewelled catsuit outfitted with 10-foot wings, a 24-karat gold headpiece, as well as custom gold-leaf Giuseppe Zanotti shoes and fine jewels by Andreoli, John Hardy, and Oscar Heyman,” per Vogue.
Not only did his look create a statement, he was carried into the event on the shoulders of six shirtless men, emulating an Egyptian god.
Porter has always been outspoken about his views, and he did the same in 2021 when he criticised Harry Styles’ Vogue cover, making him the magazine’s first-ever male cover star, wearing a grey dress.
In 2023, Porter said Wintour, the then-editor-in-chief of Vogue, had interviewed him months before the cover dropped to ask his insight on how to lead the publication into the future.
“That bitch said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” he told The Telegraph.
He had advised the editor to “use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement”.
“Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover,” Porter said.
“This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Now, in a recent interview with podcast Bevalations, the Pose star shared he felt especially snubbed when he wasn’t invited to last year’s event, which was themed Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.
Porter is known for his unique take on tailored wear, having attended many events, like the Oscars in 2019 or even the Olivier Awards last year, in clothing that would have perfectly fit the brief.
Despite the snub, the actor insisted he’s “good”.
“I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome,” he said.
“I’ve 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.
“I’m going to sit and live in that because it helps keep me sane, too.”
Zohran Mamdani
Newly-elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is breaking years of mayoral tradition by not attending the Met Gala.
Last week, in an interview with Hell Gate, the known socialist confirmed he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, will be giving New York’s most lavish event a miss in order to focus on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable”.
The subtle snub comes as controversy mars the event, since billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez are the lead sponsors of the event.
Posters calling to “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala” have emerged across New York in the lead-up to the event.
Considering the mayor has been committed to his mission to focus on working-class issues, and Amazon has been accused of worker exploitation, it makes sense Mamdani will be giving the Met Gala a miss.
Demi Lovato
Singer Demi Lovato branded the elite event “cliquey”, sharing that she “had a terrible experience” at the 2016 event in a 2018 interview.
She told Billboard of one unnamed celebrity who was a ”complete bitch and was miserable to be around.
“I remember being so uncomfortable that I wanted to drink,” said Lovato, who has long been open with her history of substance abuse and her commitment to sobriety.
She shared that she went straight from the Gala to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
“I changed my clothes, but I still had my diamonds on – millions of dollars of diamonds on in an AA meeting,” she recalled.
“And I related more to the homeless people in that meeting who struggled with the same struggles that I deal with than the people at the Met Gala.”
Lovato returned to the gala in 2024, but skipped in 2025, so time will tell whether she will return to this year’s event.
Jennifer Aniston
Over her three-decade career in Hollywood, Jennifer Aniston has been invited to the Met Gala many times but has consistently declined every single time.
Last year, the Friends star told Glamour magazine exactly why she chooses not to go.
“Yes, I have [been invited], but I don’t go. It overwhelms me,” Aniston said.
“It’s the getting ready, the putting on the dress. I’m a jeans and flip-flops and tank top kind of girl.
“I love dressing up too, but for me it’s a mental game of … ‘Let’s get dressed up, put on a fancy dress, makeup, get your hair all ‘purdy’ and go sit in a big room with your peers.’
“Everyone’s there to celebrate each other and have some fun, but I get nervous.”
Aniston added that despite her career on screen, in real life, she has a fear of public speaking and a complicated relationship with red carpets.
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“I even get a little anxious about public speaking, especially over the years of having your words twisted and taken out of context,” she said.
“So I find myself almost hall-monitoring myself in a weird way.”
“Some people find it [red carpets] like a sport where they build you up and then they love to tear you down.
“What’s the reason why people do it? Who knows? But I just try as best I can [to tune it out] because it doesn’t do you any good.”
Lili Reinhart
Lili Reinhart has a funny feeling she will no longer be invited to the event after taking aim at another attendee.
The Riverdale actress attended in 2018, 2019, and 2021, but after 2022, she may have been taken off the guest list.
She called out Kim Kardashian after the reality star shared she rapidly lost weight in order to fit into the very dress Marilyn Monroe wore to perform for former President Kennedy on his 45th birthday in the ’60s.
After the event, Reinhart took to her Instagram stories to share, “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 f—–g dress? So wrong. So f—-d on 100s of levels.”
She encouraged her fans to “stop supporting these stupid, harmful celebrities.”
In October that year, the Hustlers star discussed her rant in an interview with W Magazine.
“Was fun, but after going again this year, I don’t think I’ll be invited back,” she commented.
“I said a certain something about a certain person in a certain dress.”
Tim Gunn
Academic and TV personality Tim Gunn is another person we are pretty sure is banned from the affair, with the Project Runway star saying as much on the show in 2016.
“It is very true. It is a crazy story, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a very matter-of-fact story,” he said.
“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.’
“All hell broke loose. It was insane. We’ve had an open war ever since.”
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