Sophia Michaels
Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy had their fashion coronation at the Met Gala Monday night, sparking confusion over whether it’s Love, Actually. After years of denials that their relationship was anything but a longstanding friendship, the Vogue doyenne made her red carpet debut with the Oscar-nominated actor in front of a global audience.
The couple arrived arm in arm at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wintour, clad in Chanel to honor her friend Karl Lagerfeld, whispered in Nighy’s ear as they posed for the cameras and climbed the steep stairs to the glittering event. Intriguingly, however, a rep for Nighy chose to deny the romance, telling Page Six Tuesday: “Bill and Anna have simply been great friends for two decades. They are not in a relationship.” Although reps for Wintour declined to comment about the relationship, a source close to the Condé Nast chief told Page Six: “We think last night speaks for itself.”
A guest inside the lavish bash, attended by stars from Kim Kardashian to Rihanna, said the pair spent the event together, adding: “They are so cute.” Another insider pointed out that Wintour was smiling the entire time, saying: “They are the new royal couple of fashion! Look at their body language — I have never seen Anna like that before….even when she was with Shelby (Bryan, her former partner), he would always stand behind her.”
Wintour and Nighy, both 73 and both Brits, have been friends for decades and have been often spotted together on trips to the theater and restaurants around London and NYC. While in Rome together in 2021, Nighy was seen presenting the famously-bobbed Wintour with roses. Friends of Wintour — seen with Nighy at the Nicole Farhi fashion show in September 2012 — say their appearance together at the Met Gala “speaks for itself”. And over the space of a few weeks in 2018, they were seen at the theater in London – once to see ‘The Jungle’ and then also in the audience at “The Inheritance.”
In February 2020, Page Six told how they were spotted enjoying a cosy dinner at Sant Ambroeus on Madison Avenue
