Jennifer Aniston explains why she’s never attended the Met Gala

The Met Gala may be the Super Bowl of fashion, but Jennifer Aniston’s not playing.

The “Friends” icon told Glamour she’s been invited to fashion’s biggest night, but putting on a full couture look and facing the famous staircase simply isn’t her vibe.

“Yes, I have [been invited], but I don’t go,” the 56-year-old told the magazine. “It overwhelms me.”

“It’s the getting ready, the putting on the dress,” she continued. “I’m a ‘jeans and flip-flops and tank top’ kind of girl. I love dressing up too, but for me it’s a mental game of…’Let’s get dressed up, put on a fancy dress, makeup, get your hair all ‘purdy’ and go sit in a big room with your peers.’ [And yes,] everyone’s there to celebrate each other and have some fun, but I get nervous.”

Aniston confessed she’s long had a complicated relationship with red carpets.

In the same Glamour chat, the actress called out the viciousness of some critics: “Some people find it like a sport where they build you up and then they love to tear you down. What’s the reason why people do it? Who knows? But I just try as best I can [to tune it out] because it doesn’t do you any good.”

In a 2021 InStyle cover story, she admitted the whole “how to pose” element has never come naturally.

“[How you pose] depends on your stylist because they go, ‘Never do this! Always do this!’ I’m like, ‘Well, that feels weird,’” she said at the time. “I don’t know how to stand on a red carpet, but you do the best you can.”

Not that Aniston has sworn off them entirely.

The A-lister currently stars in “The Morning Show” on Apple TV+, whose fourth season is set to premiere later this month, so we’ll likely see her at the Emmy Awards on Sept. 14.

And when Aniston does show up, she turns out. At the 2024 Emmys, she sparkled in a strapless silver Oscar de la Renta gown dripping in crystals and accessorized with Tiffany & Co. jewels.

Just a few months earlier, she turned heads at the Golden Globes in a timeless custom black strapless Dolce & Gabbana number.

But Vogue’s first Monday in May? That’s where she draws the line.

The ultra-exclusive fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute — where tickets go for $75,000 a head — is one high-pressure carpet she’s happy to skip.

She’s in good company, too: stars like Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt have also never attended the Met Gala.