Griner became the first WNBA player to attend the annual event on Monday.
Ahead of making her WNBA return later this month, Brittney Griner stepped out for a special date night with wife Cherelle at the 2023 Met Gala on Monday.
Just five months after her release from a Russian penal colony, Brittney became the first-ever WNBA player to attend the event. She and her wife made a stylish pair, with Brittney in a silver suit and trench coat perfectly tailored to her 6'9" frame, and Cherelle in a simple-yet-elegant sleeveless white gown.
Griner is set to make her WNBA return on May 19, as the Phoenix Mercury take on the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena. On May 21, she'll suit up at Phoenix's Footprint Center for the first time in 19 months for her homecoming game against the Chicago Sky.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist announced last month that she also plans to write a memoir about her time under Russian imprisonment.
In a press release, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group imprint shared that Griner "shares her raw, emotional journey from Olympic champion to hostage to her life today." The novel will recount the tumultuous events of 2022 "that both reshaped her life and captured the world's attention..." The book will take readers through the 32-year-old's arrest at a Russian airport in February 2022, her detainment, trial and imprisonment in Russia, as well as "the efforts in public and behind the scenes at the highest levels of government to bring her home."
Griner's memoir will also highlight the beginnings of the global #WeAreBG movement, as well as "the issue of pay equity for women athletes in the United States - the very inequity that led Griner to play basketball in Russia for seven previous seasons and to return for an eighth on that fateful February day."
The 2023 Met Gala takes place on May 1 in New York City. The theme this year is "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" and celebrates the full work and life of the late designer. The exhibition -- which opens to the public on May 5 and closes July 16 -- features 150 of Lagerfeld's designs from Chanel, Balmain, Patou, Fendi, Chloe as well as his own personal line and are accompanied by his sketches. The Chanel creative director died in February 2019. He was 85 years old.
After the theme was announced in September, it sparked backlash due to Lagerfeld's alleged past problematic comments, including in 2009 that "no one wants to see round women." In 2018, he also said he was "fed up" with the #MeToo movement.
The dress code this year is "in honor of Karl." The co-chairs for the spring fashion event are Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Dua Lipa, tennis pro Roger Federer, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. The annual gala is a fundraiser for New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Entertainment Tonight is on the iconic Met Gala red carpet so keep checking back with ETonline for more coverage from fashion's biggest night, including all of the jaw-dropping red carpet looks.
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