Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez named Met Gala 2026 honorary co-chairs

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez keep climbing fashion’s biggest staircase.

The Amazon founder and his wife have been named honorary co-chairs of the 2026 Met Gala, adding yet another title to their growing role at fashion’s most exclusive event. The designation places them in the evening’s receiving line for the May 4 benefit, where they’ll join co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.

The couple were already announced as the lead sponsors of the “Costume Art” gala and exhibition back in November, but Vogue didn’t mention the co-chair upgrade when it revealed the rest of the host committee in December. Instead, the news appeared near the bottom of a Feb. 23 announcement of the evening’s dress code, “Fashion is Art,” tacked onto a list of eight newly added host committee members.

Sánchez didn’t bury the lede herself, though. Appearing on the “Today” show Tuesday, she said the offer included the co-chair title from the jump.

“When Anna called me and said, ‘Do you want to co-chair and also be the sponsors of the Met?’ I was so honored,” she said. “And then she told me the theme — fashion is art. These designers are true artists. [Elsa] Schiaparelli was best friends with Salvador Dalí, and his medium was a canvas, and hers was clothing.”

“It’s going to be incredible to see what everyone wears and to be able to really honor all these designers,” she added. “I cannot wait.”

The couple’s dual role as sponsors and honorary chairs has a precedent: Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, also served as honorary chairs when they were the lead sponsors of the 2018 “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibition — which went on to become the most visited show in the Met’s history, drawing more than 1.6 million visitors.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri was named honorary co-chair in 2022 when the social media platform underwrote the event.

Still, the Bezoses’ growing footprint at fashion’s biggest night has drawn sharp criticism. When their sponsorship was first announced in November, Instagram users flooded the Met’s post with accusations that the couple was attempting to buy cultural legitimacy.

“This is such an iconic theme and it’s so so so sad to see it gutted and trashed by the choice in sponsorship,” one commenter wrote.

Wintour pushed back on the backlash in November, telling CNN, “Lauren is going to be a wonderful asset to the museum and to the event. We’re very grateful for her incredible generosity.”

Bezos has attended the gala before — he served as honorary chair in 2012 when Amazon sponsored the event and went solo to the 2019 “Camp: Notes on Fashion” fête — while Sánchez has been just once, making her debut in 2024.