Blast from the past. Vanessa Hudgens and Austin Butler attended the Met Gala 2022 the same night he walked the red carpet with his girlfriend, Kaia Gerber.
Vanessa was the first of the three to arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Monday, May 2, 2022, in a sheer black Moschino dress with a tulle-like train, puffy sleeves and a high neck. Austin and Kaia arrived less than an hour later and walked the red carpet separately before reuniting at the top of the Met Gala steps for some shots as a couple. Austin, who wore an all-black Prada suit, first walked the red carpet at the Met Gala with the cast and crew of his upcoming movie, Elvis, in which he plays Elvis Presley. With him were Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla Presley; actress Olivia DeJonge (who plays Priscilla); actor Kelvin Harrison Jr., who plays B.B. King; and singer Kacey Musgraves, who wrote a song for the film. Kaia, who wore a sheer Alexander McQueen, walked the red carpet separately.
Image: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA.
Image: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP.
The run-in between Vanessa, Austin and Kaia comes two years after Vanessa and Austin broke up in 2020 after nine years together. “Vanessa and Austin are officially broken up, and Vanessa has been telling those close to her about their breakup,” a source told Us Weekly at the time. An insider told E! News at the time that Vanessa and Austin’s split was due to the long distance between them. At the time, Vanessa was in Europe filming The Princess Switch 2, while Austin was in Australia filming Elvis. “They’re just shooting on two different continents and it’s a matter of distance,” the insider said. “There is no bad blood at all, and they have a lot of respect for each other.” A second source also hinted that Vanessa and Austin were hopeful at the time that they would get back together, claiming at the time that the two were “split for now” but were “going to see what happens.” “They have such a history and deep connection they could find their way back to one another,” the insider said.
Austin and Kaia sparked dating rumors in December 2021 after they were photographed at a yoga class together. A source confirmed their relationship to People. “She seems really happy,” the insider said. “All of her friends think he’s really cute. A source told Life & Style at the time that Vanessa is “totally cool” about her ex-boyfriend’s new romance. “She has moved on,” the insider said. “She and Austin didn’t work out. It happens.” Vanessa, for her part, has been dating Pittsburgh Pilot player Cole Tucker since February 2021.
Image: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP.
In an interview with Glamour UK in December 2021, Vanessa noted that she and Cole are “very different” but their relationship still works. “He’s his own person,” she said. “Our interests are very different, but our fundamentals are the same. He’s goofy and I’m very goofy. None of us take ourselves too seriously.” She continued, “My group of friends are the most unique and expressive and dramatic group of people you may ever meet. And for some people that is way too much. But we support each other’s quirks and weirdnesses. I mean, my friends and I talk in accents all day long [or] in baby voices.” She also gave advice for those who are looking for their person. “It is about embracing your sparkle, finding what makes you unique and celebrating that. And I feel like it takes a while to get there,” she said.
As for Kaia and Butler, Life & Style’s source hinted that the two work because of their 10-year age difference. “Austin is older than her by 10 years, but she likes that,” the insider said. “They‘re having fun getting to know each other better, and they make a really cute couple.”
Image: Gallery Books.
For more about Anna Wintour and the Met Gala, read Amy Odell’s 2022 book, Anna: The Biography. The biography—which was named as Bloomberg’s “10 Most Compelling Books to Put on Your Reading List This Spring”—follows Wintour’s life and career, from her childhood as a tomboy in the 1950s to how she found her love of fashion as a teenager in 1960s London. The book also dives into how Wintour became the editor-in-chief of Vogue after she left high school to work at a boutique in London and made her way to New York, where she started her career at Condé Nast and made a name for herself as the fashion media powerhouse the world knows today. Written by former Cosmopolitan editor Amy Odell, Anna gives a candid look into Wintour’s personal story and the “hierarchical dynamics of the fashion industry” still foreign to outsiders. “Anna charts the relentless ambition of the woman who would become an icon,” the publisher’s description reads.
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