The Met Gala red carpet may be the most coveted invite in fashion, but behind the museum doors, it’s not everyone’s fairy tale.
Over the years, a growing roster of A-listers have pulled back the curtain on the annual Costume Institute fundraiser — and their reviews aren’t always five stars. The complaints range from crippling anxiety and aggressive photographers to limited drink menus and a room full of famous people too awkward to talk to each other.
From pop stars who snuck out barefoot to actors who describe the evening as one long exercise in collective loneliness, these celebrities have made it clear that inside the Met, the first Monday in May isn’t a guaranteed good time.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Paltrow called the 2013 Met Gala “so un-fun” but returned in 2017 and 2019, admitting to a “love-hate relationship” with the event. Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
No celebrity has publicly hated on the Met Gala quite as hard as Gwyneth Paltrow. “I’m never going again,” she told USA Today in 2013. “It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all.”
She doubled down in a later interview with Australian radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O. “It sucked,” she confirmed. “It seems like the best thing in the world. You think, ‘Oh my god, it’s going to be so glamorous and amazing, and you’re going to see all these famous people.’ And then you get there, and it’s so hot, and so crowded, and everyone’s pushing you. This year it was really intense. It wasn’t fun! Kanye West was playing, and he was furious, and he threw his microphone down. It was all drama! I don’t know why he was furious.”
That year’s theme didn’t help. “Everyone was dressed in punk … and I feel that we’re all a bit old to be dressed punk, you know what I mean?”
And yet Paltrow returned to the Met Gala in 2017 — and again in 2019. In a recent Goop piece, she acknowledged the contradiction head-on: “I have sort of a love-hate relationship with the Met Ball that’s well documented.”
She also distanced herself from stars who arrive dressed in “costume” for the event’s theme. “I’m me — so I’m never going to the Met Ball in like, a hot dog costume or whatever, you know?” she wrote. “I always have to be myself, first and foremost. Like, I’m not going in a costume; I’m going in a dress.”
SZA
The singer walked three blocks barefoot after sneaking out the back of the 2022 Met Gala due to overwhelming anxiety. Getty Images
SZA walked the 2022 Met Gala carpet in a magenta Vivienne Westwood gown — and spent most of the night trying to find the exit.
The Grammy winner later revealed the evening had been a struggle from the start. “I hated my outfit. That was another mental health thing,” she told Finish Line for its Community Voices mental health series.
“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, ‘Damn, 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,” she continued.
The singer ultimately snuck out the back and walked three blocks without shoes to hail a yellow cab back to her hotel. “I just tiptoed a couple blocks and caught a yellow cab back to my hotel because I was just overwhelmed,” she said, comparing herself to “a little dirty Cinderella running away with my shoes.”
Regé-Jean Page
Page described the Met Gala as a room full of people “all utterly lost and alone” after attending in 2022 and 2025. Getty Images
Regé-Jean Page has attended the Met Gala twice — in 2022 and 2025 — and both times left with the same observation.
“What no one tells you about the Met Gala is that everyone, almost everyone, is on their own,” the “Bridgerton” alum told Esquire in March 2026. “There’s the most glamorous room, the most exclusive echelon of society, all utterly lost and alone and searching for connection.”
Even the outfits couldn’t offset the mood. “You’re dressed as well as you’re ever going to be dressed. But you’re also in a very vulnerable place, ready to lean on your co-star immediately,” he added.
Page ended up meeting his “You, Me & Tuscany” co-star Halle Bailey at the 2025 gala.
Billie Eilish
Eilish co-chaired the 2021 gala and walked away thinking celebrities are “just literally nobodies.” Getty Images For The Met Museum/Vogue
Billie Eilish co-chaired her first Met Gala in 2021 — and walked away with a somewhat deflating takeaway about celebrity culture at large.
“The main thing that night made me think or feel was how famous people are just literally nobodies. Just randos, and it’s so weird,” Eilish said during a December 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show.”
The then-19-year-old said the evening stripped away whatever mystique she’d associated with fame. “I was like, ‘Wow, all these people are just somebody that’s in class with you,’ and you think this person’s kinda annoying, you really like this person, you get along with this person, and everybody’s just, like, embarrassed and insecure about what they’re doing and saying,” she added.
Eilish returned to the Met in 2022 and 2023.
Demi Lovato
Lovato left the 2016 Met Gala early for an AA meeting, calling the event “cliquey” — but gave it a second chance in 2024. Getty Images
Demi Lovato attended her “first and probably last” Met Gala in 2016, where she was photographed in an awkward-looking encounter with Jeremy Scott and Nicki Minaj. Lovato later shared the image on Instagram, hashtagging it #notforme.
In 2018, the pop star opened up further about her awful experience at the gala. “This one celebrity was a complete bitch and was miserable to be around,” she told Billboard. “It was very cliquey. I remember being so uncomfortable that I wanted to drink.”
Lovato, who’s famously been sober for several years, added that she went straight from the Met Gala to an AA meeting. “I changed my clothes, but I still had my diamonds on — millions of dollars of diamonds in an AA meeting,” she said. “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 — fake and sucking the fashion industry’s d—k.”
Eight years later, Lovato gave the gala a second chance. She returned to the 2024 Met Gala in a silver Prabal Gurung gown, telling E! News she felt “amazing” and went through “a myriad of emotions” on her drive over.
Lena Dunham
Dunham said she spent the 2016 gala counting down until she could leave, but this year joined the host committee. Getty Images
Lena Dunham landed in hot water after sharing her terrible Met Gala experience in a since-deleted Lenny Letter interview with Amy Schumer in 2016.
“You and I were literally sitting across from each other at the Met Ball, and it was like a crazy countdown to when we could escape,” Dunham said, adding that her seatmate made the situation even more uncomfortable.
“I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and … it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards,” the “Girls” star said. “He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused.”
Following criticism for her remarks, Dunham apologized to Beckham on Instagram. “I struggle at industry events (and in life) with the sense that I don’t rep a certain standard of beauty and so when I show up to the Met Ball surrounded by models and swan-like actresses it’s hard not to feel like a sack of flaming garbage,” she wrote. “This felt especially intense with a handsome athlete as my dinner companion and a bunch of women I was sure he’d rather be seated with.”
Despite any misgivings, Dunham was back on the red carpet at the Met Gala in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and will return as a member of the host committee at the 2026 fête.
Lizzo
The singer was disappointed by the lack of cocktails and put-off by heckling photographers at the 2022 gala, but has returned every year since. Getty Images
Lizzo pulled up to the 2022 Met Gala in an oversized Thom Browne coat, performed a flute solo on the carpet and then spent the rest of the evening loudly advocating for better hospitality.
In an Instagram Live, the singer did not hold back about the logistics. “There’s a long f–king line,” she said. “You’ve gotta wait. I was sweating in a big-ass coat, my feet were hurting.”
Once inside, things didn’t improve. “They don’t have no chairs, no cocktails,” she said. “I was like, ‘Bitch? Can we get some chairs or some drinks or some hors d’oeuvres?’”
Her biggest grievance? The bar. “They were being really stingy with the liquor that night. He was like, ‘Red or white wine?’ And I was like, ‘Tequila! Do you know what I’ve been through? Do you know how many hours I’ve been in this corset? How long I’ve been in these damn shoes? Tequila!’” she recalled.
The photographers didn’t help, either. Lizzo said she’d planned an elaborate flute performance on the carpet, but the press pool cut her short. “They were like, ‘You’re putting us to sleep with the flute!’”
Despite all of that, she called the gala “prom for celebrities” — and has attended the event every year since.
Jennifer Garner
Garner found the 2007 Met Gala “a little scary” and hasn’t been back in nearly two decades. Getty Images
Jennifer Garner attended the Met Gala exactly once, in 2007, wearing a red Valentino gown with the designer himself as her date. Nearly two decades later, she’s yet to make a second appearance.
“I went to the Met Ball exactly one time. I found it a little scary, so I haven’t been back,” Garner told Vogue in a December 2023 “Beauty Secrets” video.
She did have kind words for the dress, though — and later joked on Instagram: “You will never appreciate using the bathroom alone until you’ve been sewn into a dress — Met Gala 2007.”
Tina Fey
Fey attended the Met Gala once in 2010, dubbed it “such a jerk parade” and has never returned. Getty Images
Tina Fey has only attended the Met Gala once, in 2010 — and later deemed it “such a jerk parade.”
“Every jerk from every walk of life is there, wearing some stupid thing,” she told David Letterman in 2015. “If you had a million arms, and all the people you would punch in the whole world, they’re all there.”
To add insult to injury, Fey said that she accidentally stumbled into another partygoer’s “fart cloud” at one point in the evening. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is the insides of a terrible person coming out,’” Fey recalled.
Amy Schumer
Schumer told Howard Stern the 2016 gala “felt like a punishment” — then showed up again the following year. Getty Images
Amy Schumer earned her first Met Gala invite in 2016, but later said that attending “felt like a punishment.”
“It’s so fake … it’s people doing an impression of having a conversation,” the comedian told Howard Stern. “We’re dressed up like a bunch of f—-king assholes. I left the second I could.”
The star swore she’d never attend again. “I got to meet Beyoncé and she was like, ‘Is this your first Met Gala?’” Schumer said. “And I was like, ‘It’s my last.’”
Surprisingly, the “I Feel Pretty” actress returned to the ball in 2017 and again in 2022.
Lourdes Leon
Madonna’s daughter called her boyfriend mid-dinner at the 2021 Met Gala because she “didn’t know who the f–k to talk to.” Getty Images For The Met Museum/Vogue
Madonna’s eldest daughter attended her first and only Met Gala in 2021 in pink sequined Moschino — and had a characteristically unfiltered response when asked if she had fun.
“Maybe because it was my first time, but it felt crazy,” Leon told Interview Magazine. “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 f–king know them. That’s not my vibe.”
The model didn’t sugarcoat the social dynamics, either. “I’m sure it’s fun if you’re someone who is friends with a lot of famous people, but I’m not,” she said. “I didn’t know who the f–k to talk to. I felt so awkward that I literally called my boyfriend in the middle of it.”
Jack Schlossberg
JFK’s grandson publicly denounced the 2025 Met Gala, telling Anna Wintour directly that it wasn’t “the time for a party like that.” WireImage
Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, may have enjoyed the Met Gala the one time he attended in 2017, but he staged a public boycott around the 2025 event.
“I love to party and I’ve been to the Met Gala before. I had a great time,” he said in a video directly addressed to Anna Wintour. “But this year, with so much happening around the world and at home, I cannot in good conscience go to the Met Gala.”
Schlossberg, whose late grandmother Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis co-chaired the gala in 1976 and 1977, said simply: “It’s not the time for a party like that.” However, a source told Page Six the political commentator and former Vogue contributor never received an invite.
Azzedine Alaïa
Alaïa called out the Met for snubbing his designs from the 2009 “Model As Muse” exhibit, and his supermodel muses skipped the gala in a show of support. Corbis via Getty Images
When none of Azzedine Alaïa’s designs were featured in the Met’s 2009 “Model as Muse” exhibit, the late designer asked the close cadre of supermodels — Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Stephanie Seymour — not to wear the gowns he’d already made for them. In a show of solidarity, the models skipped the event altogether, too.
“It would have been silly to have seven girls wearing my dresses at the party and not have anything of mine in the exhibit,” Alaïa told the New York Times, adding that Vogue’s Anna Wintour “has too much power” over the Met.
The Tunisian-French designer died in 2017, and never walked the carpet himself — though his namesake house has since outfitted several stars for the big night.
Zayn Malik
Malik told GQ in 2018 he’d rather stay home than pose on a red carpet and has not attended the gala since 2016. WireImage
Zayn Malik attended the 2016 Met Gala with then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, but later told GQ that the party wasn’t his scene.
The former One Direction singer said the event represented everything he dislikes about fame, and that he’d only shown up because his former stylist talked him into it.
“The Met Gala is not necessarily anything that I ever knew about or was about,” he told the magazine. “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.”