Jodie Turner-Smith Says 2024 Met Gala Dress Represented ‘a Clean Start’

Jodie Turner-Smith is opening up about the inspiration behind her “bridal” Met Gala look.

The Anne Boleyn star — who wore a custom white Burberry tulle dress, which had been hand-embroidered with ivory silk organza feather flowers — noted that the outfit had heavy symbolism for her newfound single life amid her divorce from Joshua Jackson.

“This met gala was a very special one for me… my first stepping out on my own,” Turner-Smith, 37, wrote on Instagram, while alluding to the first time she attended the Met Gala in 2022 with Jackson, 45. For that event, she wore a custom Gucci fringed beaded bodysuit with long pleated train.

The actress went on to say that she had “many thoughts” after reading the short story called the “Garden of Time” that this year’s Met Gala theme “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” was based on, and mainly took away the “desire to represent both the power of nature and the delicacy of it.”

“In nature, death is both an ending *and* a beginning. when you prune away that which is dead, new buds are free to grow. fitting, then, that the dress #DanielLee designed for me, full of english flowers, was deliberately bridal,” Turner-Smith shared. 

“White, representing a rebirth. a clean start. a recommitment to the most important relationship i will ever have, the relationship from which all others grow: my relationship with myself,” she continued, while adding that “through loving and honouring myself,” she is “able to love and honour” her daughter Juno, 3, and “teach her to do the same.”

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“I am ever changing, ever growing, always beginning… and FREE, to love better, stronger, more fiercely and fearlessly than i ever have 💞,” she concluded. “THANK YOU ENDLESSLY, @burberry, for your support and your creativity and your love. can’t wait to see what’s next…!!!!!”

Alongside the words, she shared several photos of her look, including snaps of her dress from different angles on the Met Gala carpet. The photos showed off her white-blonde hair for the night and bold accessories, including a Chopard cross necklace and blue rose that she held in her hand. 

She also shared some behind the scenes pictures of her glam squad getting her ready, having fun with friends and sitting down for dinner inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Independent star filed for divorce from Jackson in October 2023 after four years of marriage. She opened up about the end of the marriage in an interview with U.K. newspaper The Times four months later, saying that she had a positive mindset about the split.

“Sometimes things we really want to work just don’t end up working,” she told the outlet. “And that’s OK. The most important thing is that you choose what’s healthiest for you and your family and definitely your children.”

Turner-Smith continued, “I don’t think it’s a failure. We obviously had such a beautiful moment together. And now it’s time for a new moment for both of us. And how exciting!”