Met Gala 2026 LIVE updates: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Troye Sivan and Lena Dunham grace the red carpet

It’s the first Tuesday of May, which means it’s the First Monday of May in the Western hemisphere and thus, the Met Gala.

This year, the annual fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has been marred in controversy thanks to lead sponsors, the Bezoses, who are essentially bank-rolling the whole thing. An activist group called Everyone Hates Elon – a reference to the other controversial billionaire, Elon Musk – has been plastering New York City streets with posters and signs calling for people to boycott the event, as well as placing 300 bottles of fake urine inside the museum (a nod to the complaints that Amazon workers aren’t allowed to take bathroom breaks).

But you wouldn’t know any of this from watching the red carpet so far, which has been busy with early arrivals all wearing different variations of the dress code, “Fashion Is Art”.

So far, Anna Wintour has been joined by co-hair Nicole Kidman and daughter, Sunday Rose, all there in Chanel. Hugh Jackman has made his Met Gala debut with partner, Sutton Foster. Lena Dunham, Katy Perry and Charli XCX have also made their ascent of the Met steps, along with Heated Rivalry star, Connor Storrie and Love Story actor, Sarah Pidgeon.

See all the red carpet arrivals as they happen here.

Model-turned-actress Dree Hemingway was hard done by the producers of Love Story with the writing of her character Daryl Hannah.

While it was difficult to like the hit streaming series’ portrayal of the Kill Bill and Splash star as a whiny girlfriend with little emotional empathy, Hemingway’s heavenly Met Gala gown earns her instant forgiveness.

Hemingway, daughter of actress and model Mariel Hemingway, is wearing a silver gown with a fur-lined hem and fringed trumpet sleeves from Valentino’s spring 2026 haute couture collection. A neckpiece ruffled like a butterfly in flight adds to the angelic mood.

Supermodel Gigi Hadid has arrived wearing a sheer, sparkling grey gown by Miu Miu. A custom creation made in collaboration with her stylist, Mimi Cuttrell, the gown is made of intricate beading, and worn with nothing but simple white undies underneath.

Hadid has attended the Met Gala every year since 2015, and often goes hard for the theme.

This year, she went for something more simple, and it’s got some social media users very upset. “This theme shouldn’t feel this underwhelming,” one person commented under a photo of Hadid, referencing the official dress code, “Fashion Is Art”. Another wrote, “not the tighty whities”.

Arguably, Hadid is actually still very on-theme. With her model physique on full display, she’s paying homage to the exhibition’s focus on artistic representations of the body.

It would have taken the deftest of detectives to have discovered the rockabilly side of singer Troye Sivan, lurking within his pulsating dance tracks.

In top-to-Cowboy-booted-toe Prada, Sivan’s hair has been bullied into a pompadour to match his black shetland coat, worn with a white shirt, leather tie and jeans.

Denim is a rare sighting at the Met Gala. The rapper Ye, then known as Kanye West, attempted the look in 2016, drawing criticism for being too casual, but Sivan has hit the style sweet spot. We suspect Anna would approve. We certainly do.

After portraying a figure as iconic as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in the recent series Love Story, Sarah Pidgeon ran the risk of being dwarfed by the style legend’s star.

But Pidgeon, 29, has been cementing her status as a fashion icon in her own right over the most recent awards season and fashion weeks.

Tonight, she looks fresh-faced in a modern, two-piece chartreuse set, custom-made from Loewe.

Bessette Kennedy, who was a regular at the Met Gala during her time at Calvin Klein the 90s, would approve of the minimal look, we think.

Her Love Story co-star, Paul Anthony Kelly – a dead ringer for John F. Kennedy Jr. – is also there, looking handsome in a velvet burgundy tailcoat.

This year, Katy Perry is solo on the red carpet, wearing a white dress with a structured bodice custom-made by British designer Stella McCartney.

The dress is quite lovely, in a silhouette that US First Lady Melania Trump gravitates towards, but it’s the mirrored fencing mask-style headpiece concealing her face that steals the show.

Anyone who has heard the lyrics to Katy Perry’s hit single I Kissed A Girl understands that subtlety is not the singer’s strength, but what does this mean?

It’s the first Tuesday of May, which means it’s the First Monday of May in the Western hemisphere and thus, the Met Gala.

This year, the annual fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has been marred in controversy thanks to lead sponsors, the Bezoses, who are essentially bank-rolling the whole thing. An activist group called Everyone Hates Elon – a reference to the other controversial billionaire, Elon Musk – has been plastering New York City streets with posters and signs calling for people to boycott the event, as well as placing 300 bottles of fake urine inside the museum (a nod to the complaints that Amazon workers aren’t allowed to take bathroom breaks).

But you wouldn’t know any of this from watching the red carpet so far, which has been busy with early arrivals all wearing different variations of the dress code, “Fashion Is Art”.

So far, Anna Wintour has been joined by co-hair Nicole Kidman and daughter, Sunday Rose, all there in Chanel. Hugh Jackman has made his Met Gala debut with partner, Sutton Foster. Lena Dunham, Katy Perry and Charli XCX have also made their ascent of the Met steps, along with Heated Rivalry star, Connor Storrie and Love Story actor, Sarah Pidgeon.

See all the red carpet arrivals as they happen here.

It’s a family affair tonight for Wendi Murdoch, former wife of media mogul Rupert, and their daughters Grace, 25, and Chloe, 23.

Wendi, 57, has been chairwoman of the Friends of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute for the past decade and hosts a pre-party for the event every year, so it’s hardly a surprise to see her on the carpet.

The trio have gone for a coordinated look tonight – all in column gowns with Chinese-inspired beading, and matching slick back buns.

And just in case anyone was worried about the financial futures of Grace and Chloe, they can breathe a sigh of relief. In September, Wendi sided with her former husband and with stepson Lachlan in a dispute over the family trust. In essence, the move cements the pair’s position in the Murdoch family inner circle and ensures they remain beneficiaries of the dynasty’s fortune.

Hugh Jackman is attending the Met Gala with his not-so-new lover, Sutton Foster.

The Australian actor, 57, posted a video to his Instagram account with Foster, 51, captioned “Off to the #METGALA2026”.

A short while after, they hit the red carpet.

The couple met all the way back in 2003 when they crossed paths backstage at Foster’s Broadway play, Thoroughly Modern Millie. The American is a musical theatre legend in the US, and their paths crossed numerous times in the intervening years. They were then co-stars in 2022 production of The Music Man, which is how they ultimately rekindled their friendship (“friendship”).

They’ve been romantically linked since January 2025, following Jackman’s split from Deborra-Lee Furness in 2023 and Foster’s divorce from her husband in 2024.

Their joint Met Gala appearance isn’t quite what the kids call a “hard launch” (where you post a photo of your partner on social media to announce your relationship), as the couple have already done that. But it’s certainly a big milestone for their relationship.

The internet has been abuzz the past few weeks about the supposed engagement of actor Zoë Kravitz to pop star Harry Styles.

We hoped the pair might make their upcoming nuptials official on the red carpet tonight, but Styles is nowhere to be seen.

Kravitz, who is co-chair of this year’s committee, has opted for a haunting black lace Saint Laurent gown, with exaggerated hips and bold earrings.

The dress, rather conveniently, has pockets, inside which her left hand has stayed firmly tucked thus far.

One of the biggest debates to engulf the Met Gala each year is how closely the celebrities stick to the theme, if they even acknowledge its existence at all.

Perhaps it was with this in mind that the organisers made the 2026 dress code as broad as possible: “fashion is art” (groundbreaking). You only need to look to the young, cool people in attendance to see how vastly differently we can expect interpretations to be.

For instance, Emma Chamberlain, the Gen Z YouTuber-turned-podcaster-turned-coffee company founder, knows how to dress to the theme. Chamberlain, who has been a Met Gala red carpet correspondent for six years running, is wearing a stunning custom Mugler by Miguel Castro Freitas gown, with Stuart Weitzman shoes. Working with her stylist, Jared Ellner, Chamberlain sent the Freitas artworks from Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch as references for the dress, which was also inspired by watercolours.