Exactly How Much Jeff Bezos Paid to Attend the Met Gala Revealed Amid Reports Anna Wintour Saw Him as the ‘Bankroll’
The Met Gala is, above all, a fundraiser. The annual event raises money for the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, being part of the night isn’t cheap, and being a sponsor isn’t either. And this year, two of the biggest sponsors were Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. But how much did they pay?
Page Six is reporting that the two paid at least $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala Monday night. The two reportedly sat alongside Kris Jenner, and were honorary co-chairs of the event alongside Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Wintour herself. Bezos skipped the red carpet, but his wife didn’t.
Related: How do Jeff Bezos’s kids feel about Lauren Sanchez?
“The Bezoses are where the American dream is at right now for status, wealth and style,” former Vogue editor William Norwich told Page Six. “They display conspicuous consumption [and] they have the ‘AWOK’ — the Anna Wintour OK.”
However, many in the fashion industry don’t agree. The Bezos sponsoring the Met Gala was the subject of a lot of controversy, with some vocally boycotting the gala because of the Amazon founder. “I’m heartbroken,” a frequent Met Gala guest and fashion insider told the outlet. “It’s being able to buy yourself into [the good graces of] Anna and the Met.”
“For me, it’s not just about the gala, it reflects a broader shift in the world we’re living in,” said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former Vogue special events planner who ran the ball for over a decade and is sometimes referred to as its mastermind. “There was a time when access to spaces like the Met Gala, or even the pages of Vogue, wasn’t something you could simply obtain, it was something you grew into through your influence, your work and your impact. It carried a sense of prestige that felt earned, not transactional.”
However, Wolkoff says it has now changed. And the Bezos are part of that change.
This comes after Rob Shuter reported Bezos had spent at least $15 million as a sponsor of the gala, but that Wintour wasn’t happy with the negative publicity he’d brought to the event. “Jeff was supposed to be the bankroll, not the headline,” a source told the journalist, explaining, “Anna wanted his money. What she did not want was Jeff Bezos becoming the villain of the night before the first flashbulb even pops.”
Shuter also reported there was a push to change the narrative before the event. “Anna is genuinely shocked by how hostile this has become,” one insider said. “She never imagined the Met Gala would start being seen as a symbol of excess instead of a cultural institution.”
There was reportedly even an emergency meeting about how to change the narrative. “There was a real panic meeting about messaging,” one source said. “Anna wanted new talking points immediately. The tone inside was urgent.”
Where did they pivot? “The old pitch was fashion, fantasy, and celebrity,” the source explained. “Now every answer starts with jobs, tourism, and how much money the Met Gala brings into New York. That is the new script.”
“The line now is simple,” one insider said. “The Met Gala funds the Costume Institute. Full stop.”
Did it work? Perhaps. Most of the headlines right after the Met are not about Bezos, after all.
