Surprise development in Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy’s ‘romance’ reveal

It seems Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy can’t quite get their stories straight about whether or not they’re a couple, after their Met Gala debut.

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and English actor Bill Nighy at the Met Gala. Picture: by Angela Weiss/AFP

Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy had their fashion coronation at the Met Gala on Monday night – but there’s 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 in New York, Wintour, clad in Chanel to honour 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 representative for Nighy chose to deny the romance, telling Page Six today: “Bill and Anna have simply been great friends for two decades. They are not in a relationship.”

The rumoured couple walked their first red carpet together yesterday. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Although reps for Wintour declined to comment about the relationship, a source close to the editor-in-chief told Page Six: “We think last night speaks for itself.”

And a guest inside the lavish bash, attended by stars ranging 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, adding: “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, often being spotted together on trips to the theatre and restaurants around London and New York.

While in Rome together in 2021, Nighy was seen presenting Wintour with roses.

Nighy’s rep denied they’re a couple – while Wintour’s said these pics speak for themselves. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

And over the space of a few weeks in 2018, they were seen at the theatre 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 Ave, and according to one onlooker, the editor looked “happier than I have ever seen her”.

The source told us at the time: “Anna was beaming the whole time. She looked happy and in very good company. She was beautifully made up and she was smiling so much. She had her sunglasses off the entire time! They were sitting together in a corner enjoying a frothy coffee.”

A week later, the actor joined Wintour as she hosted a screening of his film, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Back in December, Wintour posed with Nighy as she hosted a screening of another of his movies, Living, in New York. Although he was nominated for a best actor Oscar, Wintour did not join him at the Hollywood ceremony in March.

Wintour and ex Shelby Bryan in 2014. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty

Nighy split from his long-term partner, actress Diana Quick, with whom he has a daughter, actress Mary Nighy, in 2008, while Wintour had a long-running relationship with Texan businessman Shelby Bryan, that ended a few years ago.

She has two grown children, Bee Carrozzini and Charles Shaffer with her former husband, David Shaffer.

Both Wintour and Nighy have remained coy when quizzed about their relationship.

When asked about Wintour, Nighy told The Telegraph in February: “I’d love to answer that … but if I did, I’d be involving the Telegraph’s readers in something very close to gossip, and I know they’d never forgive me for that.”

And Wintour herself declined to comment on Nighy in an interview with The Telegraph this weekend.

Although she admitted that English men made more entertaining dinner companions than Americans, when asked if she wanted to clarify her relationship with the star, she ended the interview by saying “I think that’s ‘time’.”

This article originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission