Megyn Kelly accuses Anna Wintour of engaging in 'Black tokenism' with Met Gala 2025 theme
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Megyn Kelly didn’t pull any punches when it came to dragging Vogue queen Anna Wintour over this year’s Met Gala.
The veteran journalist blasted Wintour on her show Monday, May 5, accusing her of “hyper-pandering” and engaging in “Black tokenism” with the event’s 2025 theme.
This year’s gala theme — 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' — was inspired by Monica L Miller’s book 'Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.' It marked the first time the Met Gala spotlighted designers of color exclusively, with a specific focus on how Black men have used fashion to defy stereotypes and project power.
But Kelly was not impressed.
Megyn Kelly accuses Met Gala of engaging in 'Black tokenism'
On 'The Megyn Kelly Show', the former Fox News star tore into the event’s curation and alleged that Wintour was just trying to distract from her icy reputation.
“Anna Wintour’s so White and her partner who’s like organizing this whole thing with her, also a White guy, decided that — they realized that they would take a hit if they were to plan this, so they brought in — it very much feels like Black tokenism to me — a focus group of Black fashion elites, allegedly, and also just well-known Black people like Angel Reese, of the WNBA, to like give them the imprint of approval,” Kelly ranted.
“And some of these folks had, like, meetings at the Apollo Theater, the New York Times wants us to know, they went to the Apollo Theater to plan out tonight’s Met Gala... as they tried to pay homage to Black fashion," she continued.
Kelly insisted that the entire affair was a calculated PR move to clean up the Met Gala’s notoriously excessive image, after receiving "years of bad press about how disgustingly excessive and over the top this showing of wealth is, where the plates go for over $70,000 a ticket."
She also took a jab at the after-hours behavior of attendees, alleging that she had personally witnessed crude acts inside the bathrooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and that it’s “making a mockery of this place that is supposed to house some of our greatest works.”
“So now they’ve decided to try to get over this reputation of Anna Wintour being America’s biggest snob, and this thing being the most over-the-top, elitist, evil event by pandering to Blacks,” Kelly concluded.
Rumors, guest list snubs, and Anna Wintour’s defense
As always, the Met Gala’s guest list stirred up plenty of drama. This year’s co-chairs included Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Pharrell Williams, and honorary chair LeBron James. But there was controversy brewing behind the scenes, especially over who didn’t get an invite.
Wintour, who famously micromanages the guest list, has continued her years-long ban on anyone linked to President Donald Trump. He and first lady Melania Trump — once gala regulars — have been iced out since 2017, despite Trump famously proposing to Melania en route to the gala in 2004.
Other big names including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, were also reportedly left off the list, per The New York Times. Meanwhile, there were whispers that more liberal icons like ex–NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Vice President Kamala Harris might show up.
Wintour, for her part, has brushed off any talk of political agendas. The show "was never about politics—not in conception, not now,” she insisted.
Instead, she described the gala’s purpose as being about “self-determination, beauty, creativity, and holding up a lens to history.”
She added that this year’s theme carried “a heightened meaning in 2025", because it was “recognizing and taking seriously the contributions of Black designers and the Black community in fashion.”
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