Met Gala Red Carpet Debuts: The New Power Couples Everyone Is Talking About
The Met Gala isn’t just fashion’s biggest night; it’s pop culture’s hottest soft launch for romances — and Alex Rodriguez has practically turned those steps into his go-to status update.
If you tune into the Met Gala for the gowns, fair. But year after year, that carpet doubles as Hollywood ’s favorite place to hard-launch a relationship. A few prime examples basically turned the museum steps into a status update with better lighting.
Alex Rodriguez keeps turning the Met into a relationship reveal
Alex Rodriguez has a knack for using this night to make things official. In 2016, the former Yankees star arrived with Anne Wojcicki — yes, the 23andMe cofounder — and that walk up the stairs was their first public appearance as a couple.
By the time the next Met Gala rolled around, that romance was over. In 2017, A-Rod was back, this time debuting his relationship with Jennifer Lopez on the same carpet.
Three years after their Met debut, breakup rumors started swirling around Lopez and Rodriguez, and the pair eventually confirmed they were done. Lopez then circled back to an old chapter: she reunited with ex-fiancé Ben Affleck, and the two hit the 2021 Met Gala together.
The speed run didn’t stop there. In April 2022, Lopez and Affleck announced they were engaged again — nearly 20 years after their first go-round — then got married in July 2022. Two years later, they divorced.
Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart made it official at the 2018 gala
Riverdale costars Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart chose the 2018 event — themed 'Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination' — to finally address the dating chatter by showing up together on the carpet. They dated on and off for about three years before calling it quits in May 2020.
Bottom line: fashion may get top billing, but the Met carpet is also where couples love to plant a flag — debut now, let the internet figure it out later.