The Met Gala is one of the few A-list events where the discourse usually revolves around the celebrities’ outfits instead of their personal lives. Unless, of course, you’re Rihanna, and you manage to fuse the two by announcing your third pregnancy in a custom Marc Jacobs skirt suit.

Since we are only invited to see carefully curated snippets of the stars getting ready or sneaking out of their hotels before they ascend the famous steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to pose for a few minutes’ worth of photos, it’s easy to forget that a lot goes on behind closed doors. The event itself sees exes mingling, new couples making their debut, wardrobe malfunctions, bathroom selfies and a strict no onion and garlic policy in the catering.

It all sounds like standard, stressful, celebrity procedure, but it has come to our attention that a crucial part of the Met Gala lore often goes unnoticed – the Met Gala curse. There is a curiously long list of famous couples who climb the Met Gala steps together and then break up within a year. Coincidence? Most likely, yes, but let’s indulge ourselves for a moment.

Here is a list of celebrity couples who dressed up to the nines for the biggest night in fashion, not knowing that their relationship was set to perish.

Paul Mescal and Phoebe Bridgers

This unlikely pair started dating in 2020 and went public with their romance a year later. When they made their Met Gala debut as a couple in May 2022, posing for photographers with their arms around one another as thousands have done before, they could not have possibly known they were about to become a viral meme – or that they were about to break up.

This was only two years after Mescal’s breakthrough role as Connell in Normal People, where he starred opposite his good friend Daisy Edgar-Jones. In the viral photo, Bridgers is gazing up lovingly at Mescal, who is starring down at Edgar-Jones, who is posing alone. Now, we are not here to suggest this meme is the straw that broke the camel’s back in their relationship – Mescal and Edgar-Jones are both in new relationships, and not with each other – but Bridgers and Mescal did reportedly call off their engagement and break up by the end of the year. The picture has become something of a symbol of the ‘Met Gala curse’.

Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson

Kim’s divorced era was off to a flying start in 2021 when she started dating the popular (and greatly desired, it seems) comedian, Pete Davidson. By the time the 2022 Met Gala rolled around, they were ready to make their debut, with Kardashian slipping into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ‘naked dress’ for the occasion. It all seemed to be going well for the pair, who dated for nine months, but they decided to part ways just three months after the Met Gala. Apparently, it was because of the long-distance, with Davidson away filming in Australia and Kardashian based in California.

They have both dated an impressively long list of musicians, models, sport stars and actors, but their nine-month blip will always have a fond place in pop culture. 

Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan

Pop star Sabrina Carpenter and Irish actor Barry Keoghan caused a stir when they burst onto the scene as a couple last January. This is in part because Keoghan had only just split up with his long-term girlfriend, Alyson, who had given birth to their son Brando the summer before.

Nevertheless, Keoghan and Carpenter pressed on, and by May they were ready to attend the ‘Fashion Oscars’ together as a new couple. In fact, the Met Gala was their first official appearance together, but lo and behold, by the end of the year they decided to part ways. Rumours about why they broke up vary, but the most plausible theory is that they struggled to find time for each other as Carpenter embarked on her ‘Short n Sweet’ tour and Keoghan was regularly away filming.

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik

Supermodel Gigi Hadid and former One Direction singer Zayn Malik began dating in November 2015, shortly after Malik called off his engagement to Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards. The following May, they hard launched at the Met Gala. However, just over a year later in 2018, they briefly split up, before getting back together and welcoming their daughter Khai in September 2020. Hadid and Malik later broke up for good in 2021 but remain close friends and co-parents.

Bella Hadid and The Weeknd

The other Hadid sister (at least of the younger two), Bella Hadid, faced a similar fate not long after appearing on the Met Gala red carpet with her then-boyfriend The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaya. In May 2016 they were loved up and posing for photos and by November they were no longer together, with a source saying, ‘they are in different places right now, physically and mentally’. They did reunite in 2018, but only until August the following year.

Selena Gomez and The Weeknd

During the interim period in 2017, The Weeknd dated Selena Gomez, and in the 10 months they were together they managed to fit in a Met Gala. You know what that means! By October, they were broken up, and Gomez was pictured spending time with her on-off ex Justin Bieber while The Weeknd was soon to reunite with Hadid.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth

When famous mismatch Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth attended the 2019 Met Gala together, they were newly married, but they broke up just three months later. The fashion event was their last red-carpet appearance together.

The divorce was finalised in January 2020 and shortly afterwards Cyrus spoke about how the ‘very public’ discourse surrounding their breakup often painted her as the villain. In reality, they had been dating on and off for 10 years after first meeting as teenagers on the set of The Last Song, and had simply grown apart. The good news is they seem much happier apart. Not only are they both in new relationships, but Cyrus worked the steps at this year’s Met Gala on her own.

Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendes

In May 2021,singers Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendes attended the Met Gala together after a year and a half of dating. As tradition would have it, they were broken up by November. They briefly reunited in 2023 but ended things for good shortly afterwards. ‘They realised it was probably a mistake to give things another short,’ a source said at the time. ‘Things ended between them the first time for a reason, after all.’

Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart

One final couple to bite the dust less than a year after attending the Met Gala was Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart. They started dating in 2017 and were together on and off for three years. In May 2019, they attended the famous fashion event, and by January 2020, they had decided to call it a day. Could it have been something to do with the flesh-coloured floral shirt Sprouse wore to the Gala? We can’t be sure, but we wish them all the best.

As for 2025, it’s too soon to tell (the Met Gala was literally less than a week ago). But we are praying that everyone’s favourite couple, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, who reportedly got engaged last Christmas and made their Met Gala debut this year, are safe from the curse.