Why Rihanna Missed the Met Gala 2024

Fashion enthusiasts are all too familiar with the experience of eagerly anticipating Rihanna’s arrival at the Costume Institute’s annual bash, and the Met Gala 2024 was no different. Until all that waiting resulted in a no-show. Even superstars come down with last-minute illnesses, it would appear.

The Barbados-born singer has emerged as a Met must-see in her recent years as an attendee, fully committing to the event’s theme whether she’s cosplaying as a blinged-out Pope or swathing herself in a gigantic cream floral masterpiece, as she did last year. Her arrival times have gotten later and later, with 2023 seeing a pregnant Rihanna and partner A$AP Rocky arriving to close out the carpet at the sprightly hour of 10 p.m. This year, in an interview with Extra weeks ahead of the event, the star teased a “really simple” look and an on-time itinerary, promising, “I’m showing up for dinner!”

Reader, she did not show up for dinner. She did not show up at all. Cardi B did her best to fill in Rihanna’s traditional carpet-closing spot, unveiling a black Windowsen gown with a skirt so voluminous that science would only classify it as “ginormous,” and co-chair Zendaya followed up with a last-minute second look, swapping her outfit and glam entirely for a one-woman double act, but still, the world waited to see when Rihanna would arrive.

According to an unnamed source who spoke with People, the Met mainstay had to stay home Monday because she’d caught the flu.

Rihanna and Rocky have two small children, RZA, who celebrates his second birthday on May 13, and Riot.

A representative for Rihanna has not responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.

Relive all the looks, the best-dressed guests, see who won the evening's theme, and catch up on all the details from fashion’s biggest night with Vanity Fair’s coverage of the Met Gala 2024.

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