What to Know
Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue, may have the Met Gala guest list on lock, but she reportedly couldn’t get Kate Middleton to say yes. With Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez serving as lead donors for this year’s event, and with them came a lot of controversy, Wintour reportedly tried to convince the Princess of Wales to attend. Kate reportedly turned the invitation down, and the reason is worth knowing.
Reportedly, Kate Middleton turned down Anna Wintour’s invitation to attend the Met Gala.
Posted just a couple of hours before the big event, Rob Shuter shared on his entertainment gossip blog that Anna Wintour had a dream guest in mind for the 2026 Met Gala and it was the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton.
According to Rob’s Substack post, Anna was hoping to put Kate on the guest list for fashion’s biggest night because she thought she might be the one royal who would “eclipse everyone” on the red carpet.
An insider told Rob, “Kate is the one celebrity Anna wants and cannot get. That is the obsession.”
It would have been pretty cool to see Kate in some elaborate or strange gown arriving on the famous Met Gala red carpet steps!
Word on the street is that Anna even asked King Charles and Camilla for their help.
According to Rob Shuter’s Substack, if Anna was able to score Kate as a guest at the Met Gala, there were going to be very obvious comparisons to when Princess Diana made her debut at the event in 1996. The cameras simply couldn’t stop flashing when Princess Diana arrived in a showstopping navy blue Dior slip dress and a seven-strand sapphire-and-pearl choker.
A source close to the situation divulged, “This was never only about Diana. Anna wanted Kate because Kate is the ultimate prize.”
Sources told Rob Shuter that Anna even tried to enlist the help of King Charles and Queen Camilla in convincing her to attend, but no such luck. “Kate understood exactly what was being asked. This was not simply an invitation. It was an attempt to make her the defining image of the night — and she had no interest in playing that role,” a palace source shared.
Kate really could have had her fashion moment, much like Princess Diana.
Since their divorce was finalized in August 1996, a lot of people convinced themselves that when Princess Diana showed up to the Met Gala that same year, she was wearing her version of a “revenge dress.”
As we said, it was a beautiful Dior slip dress that was very much in fashion and quite risqué for someone in the royal family to wear to a such a big event. One person in this Reddit thread couldn’t help but make the comparison to someone who likely just rolled out of bed in their nightie and arrived at the biggest fashion event of the year.
“I think, the intention of the dress was that someone would wear it to be bed. So, I think the look was intended to be that she woke up and went to the Met ball. But it ended looking like a posh nightie.”
Another person clarified in the Reddit comments that this was such a moment in quintessential ’90s fashion. “It’s a slip dress and it was peak ’90s fashion,” they wrote.
Honestly, we love this look! Between Diana’s confidence on the red carpet and that jewelry, it was a total hit in our books.
READ NEXT: Carrie Underwood’s Backstage Selfie Has Fans Saying She Looks ‘Unrecognizable’
