While many were certainly excited, fans shouldn't expect any romantic couple moments between Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy going forward.
The two have sparked romance rumors for years between their decades-long friendship and many cozy dinners, and added fuel to the fire at the Met Gala last night when the Vogue editor-in-chief, who has been co-chair of the annual New York City ball since 1995, showed up just before 6pm linking arms with the Love Actually actor.
While social media quickly rallied around the alleged couple, taking their joint appearance as confirmation of their romance, they have just as quickly squashed the rumors.
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The Hollywood Reporter had initially reported that Wintour and Nighy had confirmed their romance, though they have now shared details from a statement from a representative of Nighy's, denying a relationship between the two A-listers.
"Bill and Anna have simply been friends for two decades. They are not in a relationship," the statement read.
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The Condé Naste Global Chief Content Officer, 73, was previously married to psychiatry professor David Shaffer, 87, from 1984 to 1999, with whom she shares daughter Bee Shaffer – she is married to the late Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani's son, Francesco Carrozzini – and son Charles Shaffer. From 2004 until 2020, she was married to futurist Shelby Bryan, 77.
Meanwhile, Nighy, also 73, was in a relationship with actress Diana Quick from 1982 until 2008, and together they had daughter Mary Nighy. He was also previously linked to actress Beth Morris, who passed away in 2018.
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The theme of this year's Met Gala was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. It honored the late designer's decades of work, highlighting his long-standing relationship with brands such as Chloé, Fendi, his eponymous label, and most notably Chanel, which he helmed from 1983 until his passing in 2019.
Famously on the first Monday in May, the first Met Gala was in 1948, and each year it intends to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, which was its own entity from 1937 until it merged with The Met in 1946.
In 2014, it reopened as the Anna Wintour Costume Center with the exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion. Andrew Bolton is the head curator of the institute and alongside Wintour, this year's co-chairs were Penélope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel and Roger Federer.
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