The romantic reason Taylor Swift skipped the Met Gala 2025

When someone mentions the Met Gala, a few things spring to mind: the world’s biggest celebrities. Bold, brash outfits. Blake Lively.

What do all these things have in common? A proximity to Taylor Swift, of course. Swift has attended the Met Gala six times in total, with the Antihero singer becoming a regular fixture at the event from 2008 to 2016, only skipping out on the first Monday in May a handful of times.

She became an official co-host of the event in 2016, as part of the Costume Institute’s Manus x Machina exhibition, focusing on fashion in the age of technology. Swift made headlines with her red carpet appearance, most memorably for her bleach blonde hair, a marked departure from her girl-next-door honey blonde curls.

But since 2016, Swift has not been seen at the Met Gala once. This means she’s skipped the event for a total of eight years (the 2020 Met Gala was cancelled due to Covid), even when the themes seem pretty well suited to the Bad Blood hitmaker.

The 2021 and 2022 themes in particular, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion and In America: An Anthology of Fashion, would have been prime fodder for Miss Americana, and yet she was nowhere to be seen.

To be fair, Taylor Swift has been pretty busy, taking her billion-dollar Eras tour across the world and processing not one but two breakups (Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy).

According to inside sources, Swift missed the Met Gala 2025 due to wanting downtime with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. “They have been travelling nonstop and very much enjoy it,” a source told PEOPLE in April. “They are making the most of their time off together. They are hanging out with friends, too. It’s a special time for them.”

This insider also claimed that the stars are “very serious and in sync,” saying: “They value the same things. Right now, the focus is very much on private time out of the spotlight.”

Taylor Swift attends the 2016 Met Gala, her most recent Met Gala appearance (AFP via Getty Images)

by Maddy Mussen