{"id":619303,"date":"2026-05-02T13:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619303\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:39:10","slug":"jeff-bezos-lauren-sanchez-spent-10m-to-co-host-met-gala-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619303\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos, Lauren S\u00e1nchez spent $10M to co-host Met Gala: sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bezos and Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos paid at least $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala <\/a>Monday night, Page Six can reveal.<\/p>\n

This puts the billionaire couple, who will sit with close pals including Kris Jenner<\/a> at the party, firmly in Anna Wintour\u2019s good graces.<\/p>\n

They are also honorary co-chairs of fashion\u2019s biggest night, alongside Beyonc\u00e9, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Wintour herself \u2014\u00a0the former Vogue editor who uses the starry annual event to raise money for the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos \u2014 seen at the Vanity Fair Oscars bash in March \u2014 paid at least $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala Monday night, sources say. FilmMagic<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bezoses are where the American dream is at right now for status, wealth and style,\u201d former Vogue editor William Norwich told Page Six. \u201cThey display conspicuous consumption [and] they have the \u2018AWOK\u2019 \u2014\u00a0the Anna Wintour OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for many in the fashion crowd, Wintour\u2019s courting of America\u2019s new \u201cbizarro\u201d royalty \u2014\u00a0as one insider dubbed the Bezoses \u2014 who this week celebrated Britain\u2019s King Charles and Queen Camilla at a state dinner at the White House, where Sanchez Bezoz wore 200 carats of emeralds <\/a>\u2013 goes against what the Met Gala stands for.<\/p>\n

The billionaire couple were guests at a White House state dinner honoring King Charles and Queen Camilla Tuesday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken,\u201d admitted a frequent Met Gala guest and fashion insider. \u201cIt\u2019s being able to buy yourself into [the good graces of] Anna and the Met.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez Bezos, 56, famously got the Wintour seal of approval last June when she appeared on a digital cover of Vogue <\/a>to publicize her lavish Venetian nuptials with the world\u2019s third richest man, with wedding guests including Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo Di Caprio. There were even rumors that Wintour helped pick the bride\u2019s Dolce & Gabbana gown, although sources close to the couple sniffed at this.<\/p>\n

The high-profile couple were matching in grey as they attended Paris Fashion Week in October 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Anna Wintour (right, with the Bezoses at the Tom Ford fashion show in Los Angeles in February 2020) courted the couple to sponsor the Met Gala. Penske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s not just about the gala, it reflects a broader shift in the world we\u2019re living in,\u201d said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former Vogue special events planner who famously ran the ball for over a decade and is often referred to as its mastermind. \u201cThere was a time when access to spaces like the Met Gala, or even the pages of Vogue, wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gala has evolved,\u201d added Winston Wolkoff, who wrote a best-seller, \u201cMelania & Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With The First Lady\u201d<\/a>, about her time working at the White House. \u201cAnd, in many ways, it\u2019s become something different. It used to be a true celebration of designers, their muses and the artistry behind fashion. Every person on that carpet felt intentional, like they were part of a larger narrative.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez Bezos made the cover of a digital issue of Vogue to publicize her wedding. Vogue<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sense of purpose feels less defined now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wintour\u2019s eyes, it seem, are on the bottom line: Last year, she raised $31 million, the biggest gross in the event\u2019s 77-year history.<\/p>\n

Norwich said that 76-year-old Wintour \u2014 who remains Chief Content Officer for Cond\u00e9 Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue after handing over the day-to-day reins of the fashion bible to Chloe Malle earlier this year \u2014\u00a0would have first approached the Bezoses about financing the gala at least two years ago, which the fashion insider agreed with. Despite this, other sources told us Wintour reached out after the Bezos wedding to make the request.<\/p>\n

The couple made their Met Gala debut in May 2024, joined by close friend Kris Jenner and her partner, Corey Gamble, who are expected to join them at their table Monday night. Getty Images for The Met Museum\/Vogue<\/p>\n

In a now-iconic photo, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg could not keep his eyes off S\u00e1nchez Bezos, who wore a white suit with her lacy white bra on display to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2025. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As of April, Bloomberg estimated Bezos\u2019 fortune at between $230 billion to $241 billion. He remains the executive chairman of the company he launched as an online bookstore in his garage in Bellevue, Washington, back in 1995.<\/p>\n

Sources told Page Six that Bezos paid at least $10 million to sponsor the ball, which this year has the theme of \u201cCostume Art\u201d and has the Bezos name plastered all over the invites. In fact, it could well be up to $20 million, said another source in the know. <\/p>\n

\u2018Boycott the Bezos Met Gala\u2019 posters are being plastered all over NYC. Everyone Hates Elon \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Proteters plan to stand outside the museum Monday night. Everyone Hates Elon \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

We have reached out to reps for the Bezoses and the Metropolitan Museum for comment.<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, when Bezos, 62, first sponsored the gala in 2012 via Amazon, with Wintour giving him fashion advice ahead of the event, no one blinked an eye, said fashion writer Amy Odell. But back then, he didn\u2019t have his va-va-voom bride on his arm.<\/p>\n

And despite the \u201csnobbery\u201d of many in the fashion world, the sheer power and authority of the couple cannot be ignored. Indeed, they are VICs \u2014 Very important Clients, in fashion parlance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are part of the two% of fashion buyers who represent 40% of luxury sales,\u201d said Odell. \u201cAnd fashion has reorganized around to catering to this group. Lauren is the archetype of this clientele. She\u2019s trying to make it OK again to flaunt your material excess \u2026 a lot of rich people would like to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos made his Met Gala debut in 2012, when Amazon helped sponsor the ball. Penske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez Bezos last month told the New York Times she was \u201csuper proud\u201d of the figure-hugging white Alexander McQueen white pantsuit she wore to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2025, where her lacy bra was exposed to the cameras. But she was also aware of the public criticism that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d she told the outlet. \u201cNo lace at the White House. Noted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be on Instagram showing off their jewels, gowns and couture,\u201d continued Odell, \u201cAnd some in the industry want to embrace this from a business perspective: You can buy stuff and show it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, she added, \u201cFashion is a lefty industry, however, and a lot of people do not like to see them involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos started his company in the back of his garage in Washington State. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As Page Six Hollywood reported this week, frequent Met Gala attendee and Moda Operandi entrepreneur Lauren Santo Domingo will be skipping the ball<\/a> and a number of top designers also won\u2019t be there, including Nicolas Ghesqui\u00e8re of Louis Vuitton and JW Anderson\u2019s Jonathan Anderson.<\/p>\n

Oscar winner Meryl Streep, who plays the fictionalized version of Wintour in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada\u201d movies, also declined a request to co-chair. A source told us this had nothing to do with Bezos. \u201cMeryl has been invited to the Met Gala for many years but has never attended. While she appreciates Vogue and Anna and her incredible imagination and stamina, it has never quite been her scene,\u201d said her rep.<\/p>\n

As another fashion source said: \u201cThe Met\u2019s been an elitist party for as long as it\u2019s been around. Anna puts a lot of pressure of herself to beat the year before, but that\u2019s not on Lauren and Jeff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos was slightly geeky and dressed in \u201ccheap businessman attire\u201d in the early days of Amazon, his former colleague John Rossman said. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even though Wintour could sell more tickets and more chairs, she likes to keep it exclusive, said Odell.
Individual tickets for 2026 cost $100,000, up from $75,000 last year. Table prices, at $350,000, are unchanged from 2025.<\/p>\n

For the past few years, Wintour has courted Big Tech\u2019s biggest players who, in turn, have been keen to buy tables and influence. <\/p>\n

In her \u201cBack Row\u201d <\/a>newsletter, Odell wrote that tech execs know \u201cthere\u2019s serious money to be made in being seen as a platform for the kind of fashion influence that, 25 years ago, couldn\u2019t be bought and sold at the Met Gala or anywhere else. All of these businesses need female adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos underwent a transformation after getting fit. He\u2019s seen with Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos at the Chanel Spring\/Summer fashion show in October 2025. WWD via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s table buyers include OpenAI, Meta and Snapchat. Additionally, we are told that Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla, will attend the gala for the very first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould all these tech billionaires be having a midlife makeover?\u201d laughed Odell.<\/p>\n

Bezos himself has had a phenomenal one. For early Amazon exec Jeff Rossman, Bezos\u2019s appearance at the Met Gala is at odds with the \u201cslightly nerdy\u201d guy he once knew, who dressed in \u201ccheap businessman attire\u201d of blue buttondowns and khakis.<\/p>\n

However, \u201che was always interested in the business of fashion,\u201d said Rossman, \u201cEven though he didn\u2019t personally display fashion sense, He wanted Amazon to get into the fashion business. At one point we had the concept of Amazon Black, this fashion site. He really wanted us to be able to sell apparel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos (left, from behind) chatted with King Charles on Tuesday at a reception for tech leaders. AP<\/p>\n

Since his 2019 divorce from first wife Mackenzie Scott, Bezos \u2014 especially under his second wife\u2019s guidance \u2014\u00a0has undergone a musclebound makeover and often favors form-fitting shirts and boldly colored jackets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inspiring how fit he has become,\u201d said Rossman, who wrote \u201cThe Amazon Way\u201d<\/a> and other books. \u201cIt\u2019s taken decades, but he\u2019s an example of how if you want to do something, you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Rossman added: \u201cI get the the sense his life is much more about him and Lauren than Amazon at this point\u2026I don\u2019t fully understand what his personal branding is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has also got into the fashion game. The billionaire \u2014 seen with his wife Priscilla (to his left) at the Prada show in Milan in February \u2014\u00a0will be at the gala, we\u2019re told. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Bezos\u2019 pricey Met Gala involvement also comes with another cost, as protesters are planning to flock outside the event\u00a0and have already daubed the city with posters raging against him.<\/p>\n

One reads, \u201cThe Bezos Met Gala. Brought to you by worker exploitation\u201d and shows what appears to be a bottle of urine on a red carpet \u2014\u00a0a reference to claims that Amazon delivery drivers are so pressured to stay on schedule that they don\u2019t have time to leave their trucks to relieve themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad look. It\u2019s a no-brainer \u2014\u00a0you\u2019re really talking about \u00a0a disconnect from humanity,\u201d said Chris Smalls, the former President of the Amazon Labour Union, of Bezos splashing out on the gala. \u201cThere are people just a few blocks away who are struggling so survive, including Bezos\u2019 own workers. Tens of thousands of them are living off government food stamps, some without housing.\u201d (Amazon is now fighting against a legal ruling that it has to engage with the union.)<\/p>\n

Wintour has been embracing the promo around \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2.\u201d She asked Meryl Streep (right) to co-chair this year\u2019s Met Gala, but Streep declined. Getty Images for 20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

Still, cash of the kind Bezos has is needed to keep a cultural institution like the Met going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the realities of sustaining something like the Costume Center,\u201d said Winston Wolkoff. \u201cBut the question becomes, how do you continue to evolve without losing the essence of what made [the Met Gala] so iconic in the first place?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kim Kardashian and Khlo\u00e9 Kardasian were among the guests at the Bezoses\u2019 three-day wedding last summer. James Breeden for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that line starts to blur, it changes the perception of the brand as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big question, meanwhile, is what will S\u00e1nchez Bezos wear Monday night?<\/p>\n

The fashion insider said there is one person who has the answer: \u201cKnowing Anna, she\u2019s going to find out what Lauren is wearing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos and Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos paid at least $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala Monday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[35082,236,91,57463,88,1168,4482,12424,43162,3285],"class_list":["post-619303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-anna-wintour","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-news","tag-conde-nast","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-lauren-sanchez","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-met-gala","tag-vogue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}