Will Diddy Try to Use Met Gala to Rehab His Toxic Image?

One year ago, Sean “Diddy” Combs attended the 2023 Met Gala dressed in an all-black ensemble by Sean John couture, representing both a comeback and a coup for the mogul’s eponymous fashion brand. Clad in a motorcycle jacket and black pants combo—topped off by a cape adorned with 1,000 satin and velvet petals—that he’d designed himself, Combs was riding high and enjoying his victory lap on the red carpet.

“I had a chance to spend time with Karl when I was designing Sean John, just as a fellow designer,” Combs told Vogue that evening, nodding to the evening’s theme, which revolved around Karl Lagerfeld, the longtime creative director of Chanel. “[Lagerfeld] was so creative and he had such attention to detail (and) to beauty.” The quote oozes insider status.

A lot can change in a year. Combs’ public image is now in tatters. The rapper and mogul is facing a number of serious sexual assault and trafficking allegations put forth in multiple lawsuits filed against him since last November. In March, federal agents raided two of his homes as part of a wider investigation.

As such, it’s safe to say that Combs wasn’t likely to have received an invite to this year’s ultra-glamorous fête, thrown annually by Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute on the first Monday of May.

The 2024 Gala is only days away, and is the case every year, the official guest list has been kept closely guarded.

When reached by The Daily Beast, a representative for Condé Nast would not comment on whether Combs—or any other celebrity we asked about, for that matter—would be in attendance.

Among the big names expected to attend include Zendaya, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and, of course, Rihanna. On Sunday, The Daily Beast spotted singer Rosalía walking on the Hudson River Parkway in Manhattan, prompting fans of hers to speculate on X that she was in town to attend the Gala. The Daily Beast reached out to her reps for comment.

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Combs’ team similarly declined to confirm to The Daily Beast whether or not Combs had been invited, or planned to attend, the Met Gala this year.

But if he does somehow manage to show up on the red carpet Monday night, it would be just the latest—and perhaps most extreme—example of a celebrity using the exclusive event to reshape their image in the public eye. An invitation to the Met Gala from Wintour signifies status, cultural significance, and a proximity to the avant-garde world of high fashion—in other words, the validation of elite A-listers. A Met Gala invitation is capable of both making a reputation, or aiding in repairing one.

Four years after pleading guilty to felony assault for beating his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna, before the 2009 Grammys, Chris Brown was in attendance at 2013 Met Gala afterparties after plane trouble reportedly prevented him from making the actual event.

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Rihanna, who made her Met Gala debut in 2007, has become something like the queen of the annual party via repeat invitations. Over the years, her continual celebrity ascent and taste for high-end couture have won the star endless amounts of acclaim. She plans to be there again this year, wearing what she has teased will be a surprisingly “chill” get-up. “I’m a mom,” she said recently. “I don’t got time for a lot of shit.”

Brown, meanwhile, hasn’t made an appearance at a Met Gala-adjacent event in over a decade.

Wintour is notoriously strict with the guest list, over which she has total control. And she is more than aware of the influence her curated Met Gala wields.

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For instance, the editor is close friends with Georgina Chapman, the designer behind Marchesa and the now-ex-wife of Harvey Weinstein. At the Met Gala in 2018, Scarlett Johansson became the first celebrity to wear Marchesa on the red carpet since the first sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein broke seven months prior. Page Six reported at the time that insiders told them the Johansson-Marchesa collab was entirely orchestrated by Wintour.

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That same week, in her Vogue editor’s letter, Wintour wrote that she was “firmly convinced that Georgina had no idea about her husband’s behavior” and that “one should not hold a person responsible for the actions of his or her partner.”

Historically, celebrities love debuting their relationships at the Met Gala: Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott and Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs are just a few past examples. This dynamic is mutually beneficial. The Met Gala—and by extension, Wintour and Vogue—gets to break news, and the new couples get to look glamorous and legit.

According to the Post, Huma Abedin—former Hillary Clinton aide and ex-wife of disgraced Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner—will make her red carpet debut with new boyfriend Alex Soros—son of billionaire George Soros—at this year’s Gala.

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One other relatively new celebrity couple who will be in attendance are Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—last seen laughing it up with Kanye West at the 2019 gala—and his first-timer fiancée Lauren Sánchez, who is reportedly getting “personal help” from Wintour to select a dress to wear for her big debut.

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By far the biggest coup for Wintour would have been securing the attendance, and approval by association, of Taylor Swift (who last showed up to a Met Gala in 2016) and current beau Travis Kelce—the most talked-about couple in the world—at this year’s Gala. But, according to a report from TMZ, both megastars declined their invitations.

It seems that while some celebrities need the Met Gala to lend them an air of elite legitimacy, there are others who are just too big to care.