Anna Wintour Responds to Buzz Around Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos Sponsoring Next Year’s Met Gala

Anna Wintour has entered the conversation surrounding Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos’ roles in the 2026 Met Gala.

“I think Lauren is going to be a wonderful asset to the museum and to the event,” the former Vogue Editor in Chief, 76, told CNN. “[I’m] very grateful for her incredible generosity, and she’s a great lover of costume and obviously of fashion, so we’re thrilled she’s part of the night.”

Wintour recently stepped down from her role as the editor-in-chief of Vogue U.S. after 37 years, but continues to serve as Vogue’s Global Creative Director and Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast. She will still, in part, oversee the 2026 Met Gala, but the event will mark the first for Wintour’s successor Chloe Malle.

As the Met Gala has historically been funded by high fashion houses, the decision to involve Bezos as a donor has sparked controversy regarding the creative direction of the event, in part due to Bezos’ recent involvement in President Trump’s administration. The Amazon founder, 61, most recently attended a state dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the White House, at which fellow tech billionaires Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook were also present.

Next year’s event theme is “Costume Art,” Vogue previously confirmed. Saint Laurent and Condé Nast will also donate towards the event, which will celebrate the new exhibition at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The “Costume Art” exhibition at the museum will run open on May 10, 2026, and close on Jan. 10, 2027, the magazine confirmed. The Met Gala funds the Met’s Costume Institute.

Sánchez Bezos, 55, and Bezos first attended the event together in 2024, when the dress code was “The Garden of Time”, inspired by J.G. Ballard’s short story of the same name. The Met’s exhibition that year was titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”

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News of Bezos and Sánchez’s relationship surfaced in January 2019, around the same time the Blue Origin founder announced his divorce from MacKenzie Scott after 25 years of marriage. At the time, Sánchez Bezos was divorcing her husband of 13 years, Patrick Whitesell.

Bezos and Sánchez Bezos have not shared how they first met, but sources previously told PEOPLE that the pair struck up a working relationship while teaming up on several projects and “gradually” developed romantic feelings for each other.

The 2026 Met Gala will take place on May 4, 2026.