Bella Hadid Got Caught Smoking In The Bathroom, And 10 Other Absolutely Unforgettable Met Gala Scandals

1.

While heading to an afterparty at New York’s The Standard Hotel following the 2014 Met Gala, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Bey’s sister Solange entered an elevator, where Solange scratched, kicked, and yelled at Jay-Z, while Beyoncé watched. Footage from the elevator leaked just a week after the incident, and soon everyone was wondering exactly WTF happened.

On May 15, 2014, Beyoncé, Solange, and Jay-Z released a joint statement reading: “The most important thing is that our family has worked through it. Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred. They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.” Despite the statement, rumors continued to swirl, with many believing that Solange’s outburst was because Jay-Z had been cheating on Beyoncé. Some pointed fingers at Rachel Roy, a fashion designer who was close with Jay-Z.

In order to prevent the same issue from happening at the 2018 event, Anna Wintour implemented a new rule, writing on the invitation that smoking at the event was banned. “No smoking” signs were scattered throughout the event, and guards were supposedly trained to sniff out smoke. That didn’t stop some celebs though! In 2019, Cole Sprouse was caught smoking in the back of a friend’s selfie — breaking both the no smoking and the no selfie rules.

3.

The Met Gala is notorious for some interesting looks, but Madonna’s 2016 Met outfit stirred quite the controversy. The singer chose a custom all-black Givenchy outfit that bared her butt. Once the look went public, fans began criticizing the amount of skin Madonna was showing, with people saying she “hijacked” the red carpet with her “desperate” look. The singer immediately shot back, posting an Instagram where she defended her dress, calling it a political statement. “My dress at the Met Ball was a political statement as well as a fashion statement. The fact that people actually believe a woman is not allowed to express her sexuality and be adventurous past a certain age is proof that we still live in an age-ist and sexist society.”

4.

I, for one, am incredibly intrigued by the seating chart at the Met Gala, which supposedly takes months to complete. At the 2016 Met Gala, Lena Dunham found herself seated beside NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Dunham, who donned a tuxedo at the gala, said that OBJ seemed uninterested in talking to her. “I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards,” she said in an interview. “He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean – he just seemed confused. The vibe was very much like, ‘Do I want to f— it? Is it wearing a … yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone.'”

5.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to Rihanna’s Met Gala afterparty? Turns out, it’s quite the exclusive invite, as Eddie Redmayne unfortunately learned after the 2017 Met Gala. Redmayne, his wife Hannah Bagshawe, and fellow actor Tom Sturridge showed up for Rihanna’s post-party at New York City’s 1OAK. Security turned the crew away not once, but twice, as they repeatedly tried to enter the bash. Apparently, the trio simply wasn’t allowed due to capacity issues, so looks like there’s no bad blood there.

7.

After the 2016 Met Gala, Demi Lovato said they had such a terrible time that they would likely never attend the event again. It all started when Lovato arrived on the red carpet in a Moschino dress designed by Jeremy Scott. Scott had also dressed Nicki Minaj that night, so the trio posed for a few photos together. Nicki posted one of the photos to her Instagram and tagged Jeremy, but not Demi. Lovato commented on the photo with a laughing emoji, then posted a photo of Nicki shooting them major side eye with the caption: “This picture pretty much summed up my first and probably last met 😂😂😂 #cool #sof*ckingawkward #notforme.” Both Lovato and Minaj have since deleted the photos.

In 2018, Demi reflected on their Met experience to Billboard. “This one celebrity was a complete bitch and was miserable to be around,” they said. “It was very cliquey. I remember being so uncomfortable that I wanted to drink.” In fact, Lovato dipped out of the gala early to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. “I changed my clothes, but I still had my diamonds on — millions of dollars of diamonds on in an AA meeting. 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.”

8.

Quite a few stars missed the mark with their outfits for the 2015 Met Gala, which was themed China: Through the Looking Glass. Several celebs came under fire for their outfits, which some said promoted racial stereotypes. Sarah Jessica Parker‘s custom Phillip Treacy dragon headdress was called out for playing into a “dragon lady” stereotype that sexualized and villainized Chinese women. Other celebs who faced criticism for their outfits included Karolína Kurková’s red satin gown, Dakota Johnson’s purse depicting a Chinese woman, and Lady Gaga for wearing a Japanese kimono to a Chinese-themed event.

9.

If there’s one takeaway about Anna Wintour, it’s that she’s incredibly particular about the rules at the Met Gala. After the 2014 bash, Wintour was so annoyed by all of the cell phones that she vowed to ban technology at the 2015 gala. Part of the reason for the ban was because of the sheer amount of selfies posted to social media from the exclusive event (which costs upwards of $30,000 per ticket!). The official statement said that the ban was to “ensure the guests’ security and enjoyment of the event,” but others thought that Anna implemented the ban because she thought the selfies and drunken videos celebrities posted from the event tarnished the event’s overall feel.

10.

And if you ever want to be invited to the Met Gala, then don’t cross Anna. Both Tim Gunn and Rachel Zoe found themselves in hot water after dissing Wintour. On a 2016 episode of Fashion Police, Tim Gunn said he believed he was banned from the gala after saying that the most outrageous thing he had ever seen at a fashion event was “watching Anna Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs by two bodyguards — two big hulking men — from a fashion show. All hell broke loose. It was insane. We’ve had an open war ever since.” Meanwhile, Rachel Zoe was supposedly removed from the invite list after telling the New York Times that people believed she was more influential than Wintour, saying that her work as a stylist was more important for someone’s career than being featured in Vogue.

11.

And finally, since the theme of the 1999 Met Gala was “Rock Style,” it was only fitting that Liv Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, and Stella McCartney, daughter of The Beatles’ Paul McCartney, attended the bash together. McCartney, who is a fashion designer, decided to DIY the duo’s looks, and took plain white Hanes tank tops and wrote “Rock Royalty” on them. When the pair arrived on the red carpet, they were horrified to find that they had seriously misunderstood the dress code. While it was seen as a faux-pas at the time, McCartney later told Vogue that she loved the outfits. “In this day and age, people would really plan it and overthink it intentionally to get attention in the media,” she said. “And we really didn’t, and that is what is so lovely about it.”