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Rihanna at the 2017 Met Gala
Rihanna at the 2017 Met Gala
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Culture > Entertainment

Rihanna Wasn’t At This Year’s Met Gala — Here’s Why

With each Met Gala, fans anticipate their favorite stars showing off their best looks on the red carpet. This year, a copious amount of stars skipped the event altogether  — and a few were Met favorites. Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Tyla, and several other stars had us on the edge of our seats when walking the Met Gala red carpet on May 6 with their garden-inspired interpretations of the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” theme that celebrated the world of fashion and design. But one of the event’s biggest A-listers, Rihanna, was a no-show and many are still not over this. 

RiRi is one of the many anticipated Met Gala attendees we fashion gurus crave to see walk down the red carpet. Many expected her to appear this year because of her attendance at the 2023 Met Gala, where she and A$AP Rocky appeared on the red carpet at 10 p.m. While some thought she was just running late this year, Rihanna was nowhere to be found when everyone began moving inside for the event. So, where was she? 

According to People, Rihanna had to skip the event last minute because she became sick with the flu. 

Rihanna has dominated the Met Gala red carpet in the past. Because of her fashionable and jaw-dropping looks over the years, many look forward to seeing her grace fashion’s biggest event with her presence.

Ahead of this seemed excited to attend this year’s Met Gala. During the launch of her Fenty Beauty Soft’lit Foundation in Los Angeles on April 26, she told Extra that her look for the biggest night of fashion would be “very simple” in comparison to her previous Met Gala outfits. 

The singer, businesswoman, and mother, has slayed every Met Gala she’s attended, so fans were quick to express their sadness about her no-show on X (formerly known as Twitter). 

While Rihanna was deeply missed at this year’s Met, we still saw other stars eat up the red carpet with their astonishing, floral, and bejeweled looks. Let’s hope RiRi shows up and shows out at the 2025 Met Gala. 

Camryn Bacon graduated from Texas A&M University in December 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Journalism. She is a Style writer for Her Campus National, covering fashion, beauty, and more. Her main topic of choice is fashion because Camryn loves experimenting with colorful clothing and statement pieces. Beyond Her Campus, Camryn wrote for an on-campus magazine, 'A-Line Magazine' at Texas A&M University, where she wrote online articles and created a print issue each semester. She covered everything from influencers to rom-coms to astrology but especially loves to talk about anything, fashion and lifestyle. She also interned for 'BEAT Magazine,' overseeing editorial operations and social media engagement. She has written for the Galveston County Daily News, where she interned during the summer of 2023. Her dreams are to work for 'Interview Magazine' and live in New York, the concrete jungle dreams are made of. In her free time, Camryn enjoys thrifting with her mom, writing poetry, and trying new coffee shops. You can often find her posting to Instagram about what new stories she's writing, on her poetry account or talking about The Beatles. Her favorite show is 'Sex And The City,' but she cannot go a day without watching at least one episode of 'Friends' (she even has a CD in her car that plays it).