Met Gala insiders leak ‘disturbing’ drama plaguing first event bankrolled by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez: ‘Slap in the face’ break with tradition… Anna Wintour’s new role… and A-lister who backed out
Usually, it’s all about the fashion. But, as A-list celebrities and society power players ascend the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for fashion’s biggest night on Monday, for once it will be something – or perhaps more pertinently someone – else garnering all the attention.
Gone is the chatter about the exclusively tight guest list over which Conde Nast maven Anna Wintour has reigned supreme as the chairwoman of the Costume Institute benefit, known colloquially as the Met Gala, for over 30 years – because gone is that exclusivity, judging by who will be greeting guests at the top.
Instead, insiders have told the Daily Mail, all eyes will be fixed on the glittering gala’s controversial lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs, Amazon founder and tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos.
A fashion industry insider told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s, quite frankly, very hurtful and very disturbing for [the Bezoses] to be the face of this year’s Met Gala, something that is really meaningful to a lot of people and to such a highly regarded and highly respected institution.
‘It feels like a real slap in the face to a lot of people.’
Indeed, the Daily Mail has learned that, the Bezoses’ involvement has cast a shadow over the ritzy event, dubbed the Oscars of fashion for its unabashed display of opulent glamour.
According to our source, at least one A-list heavyweight has pulled out of Met Gala programming as a result.
The Daily Mail has been told that Meryl Streep – who appeared on the May 2026 Vogue cover alongside Wintour for The Devil Wears Prada 2 promotion – was rumored to have been one of the Met Gala’s co-chairs this year, but allegedly declined to do so because of the Bezoses’ bankrolling and presiding over the party as guests of honor.
Representatives for Streep did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
Backlash against the hyper-affluent couple has been building since the November announcement. For some, Bezos’s apparent alignment with the Trump administration is simply not a good look.
Online commentators have gone as far as to label the event the ‘Jeff Bezos Nazi Met Gala’ on social media and anti-billionaire activists have plastered New York City subway stations and streets with posters calling for a boycott of fashion’s biggest night.
Internal drama is just as rampant, the fashion industry insider said, as there’s been dissent quietly brewing among those involved with planning the annual event – a fundraiser for the museum’s fashion collection.
They explained: ‘The fashion industry and the people who work in it are by and large, very liberal. Anna has always publicly supported Democratic candidates for president and Vogue endorsed Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Even the politicians that we’ve seen attend the Met Gala over the years have been overwhelmingly liberal.
‘To have a couple that aligns themselves with and have contributed a million dollars to inaugurating a president who has sought to eviscerate DEI, dismantle Roe v Wade, disenfranchise Black voters and crack down on immigration in a way that is so inhumane and horrific, rubs a lot of people the wrong way.’
Not that the couple aren’t used to controversy. Their lavish June 2025 Venice wedding was met with protests, while the Bezos-owned privatized space endeavor, Blue Origin, which saw Sanchez Bezos go to space with an all-female crew in April 2025, was derided as ‘gluttonous.’
Bezos, who has a net worth of $259 billion, faced additional scrutiny for his Met Gala sponsorship amid the gutting layoffs that took place in early 2026 at the Washington Post and Amazon and saw over 16,300 people across both companies lose their jobs.
For many the Bezoses’ underwriting of the Met Gala is a less than subtle attempt to buy their way into the elite circles of the notoriously exclusive fashion industry. In recent years, their desire to be accepted within these upper echelons has been apparent.
At couture week in Paris earlier this year, they were spotted cozying up to Wintour and Dior’s creative director, Jonathan Anderson, as well as with a Vogue digital cover story in 2025 that showcased Sanchez Bezos’s Dolce & Gabbana wedding dress.
To be the main sponsors of the exorbitantly expensive Met Gala, where individual tickets clock in at $100,000 and tables go for a whopping $350,000, is perhaps the ultimate flex of their immense financial power.
According to our fashion source, the Bezoses’ roles as honorary co-chairs of the Met Gala also signals that Wintour has given them her blessing and that others in the fashion industry will follow suit – though many of them may harbor deep reservations in private.
‘The Met Gala is the most exclusive, coveted and sought after invitation on the fashion social calendar, so to have top billing on that invite as the sponsor is absolutely an embrace and a stamp of approval,’ the source said.
‘Obviously, the Met Gala is always over-the-top and wealth and grandeur is always on display, but there are two of the richest people to ever exist in the world who will be hosting it. When we’re in the midst of a war and there are so many people struggling to have their basic needs met, it’s not necessarily the image everyone wants to see.’
