Lourdes Leon Felt 'So Awkward' at the Met Gala She Called Her Boyfriend 'in the Middle of It'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Theo Wargo/Getty
So many stars look forward to the day when they land their first Met Gala invite. But Lourdes Leon admits that the star-studded bash wasn't as fun as she expected.
Madonna's 24-year-old daughter Leon made her Met Gala debut (with her unshaven armpit visible!) last month but in a new Interview Magazine cover story, she said the party itself just wasn't her "vibe."
"Did I have fun at the Met Gala? I'm really grateful to have been able to go. Maybe because it was my first time, but it felt crazy," she said in a conversation with actress Debi Mazar. "You're just shoved into a room with all these famous people and you're supposed to talk to them and be their friend, even though you don't f—ing know them. That's not my vibe."
Leon admitted she felt a bit out of place because she didn't have too many acquaintances to talk to inside the party. "I'm sure it's fun if you're someone who is friends with a lot of famous people, but I'm not. I didn't know who the f— to talk to. I felt so awkward that I literally called my boyfriend [Jonathan Puglia] in the middle of it," she said.
Watch: Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon shows skin and armpit hair in sparkly bra top for 2021 Met Gala Debut
Once she sat down at her table for the dinner portion, Leon enjoyed herself. "The dinner was fine. I mean, I was sitting with Jeremy O. Harris, who I love, and Irina Shayk, who I love a lot. She's so funny," Leon added.
The model, who proudly showed off her unshaved armpits and leg hair in the Interview shoot, opened up about her mom Madonna and the important values she instilled in her. "My mom is very insistent on making me think about what I want to be known for beyond my looks. That's not what I want people to remember me by. It's not real," Leon said.
Something else that Madonna said that "has really stuck" with her, is to not get caught up with material things. "I've been so concerned with making a decent living and wanting to live more luxuriously than I was when I first graduated and wasn't earning a lot of money," Leon told the outlet. "She was like, 'Remember, this s— is not real. It's not about the money or your face or how hot you look. It's about what you're bringing into the world and what you're going to leave behind.' That always shakes me awake when I get too caught up in everything," Leon said.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Leon, who is Madonna's firstborn with ex Carlos Leon, revealed earlier this year in an interview with Vogue that she paid her own college tuition and lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, away from the glitz of Hollywood.
During her chat with Interview, she acknowledged that she grew up with "extreme privilege" but didn't get "any handouts" from her family — and still doesn't.
"I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, 'My kids are not going to be like this,'" Leon said. "Also, I feel like if your parents pay for things, then it gives them leverage over you. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school."
Now that she's older, Leon said she has much more respect for the life her mom has built.
"I didn't fully comprehend that until I realized the importance of empowerment and what it means to be a woman," she explained. "She's probably the hardest worker I've ever seen. I didn't inherit that, unfortunately. I inherited her control issues, but not her work ethic!"
Watch: Lourdes Leon wants to be known beyond her looks: 'It can feel very overwhelming'
