NEED TO KNOW
- Inde Navarrette took aim at Shane Gillis’ controversial joke about women’s gym attire during her Saturday Night Live hosting debut on October 31.
- Shane Gillis’ original joke on the show, which aired October 10, sparked widespread backlash.
- The Obsession star delivered the pointed jab while discussing her upcoming role in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot.
- Navarrette also joked about comparisons to her on-screen Obsession character, Nikki, with the camera panning to her boyfriend Nick Aiello, who was duct-taped in the audience.
During her Saturday Night Live hosting debut, Inde Navarrette took aim at a controversial joke previously made by comedian Shane Gillis about what women wear to the gym.
The 25-year-old actress, fresh off her breakout role in the horror hit Obsession, was a fitting choice to helm the show’s Halloween episode, where she found an opportunity to deliver a pointed rebuke of Gillis’ remarks, weaving the jab into a discussion about her upcoming role in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot.
“And I know it’s really important for Marvel that you get really fit, so I’ve been working out a lot,” she said.
“So every morning I put on my little whore outfit and I hit the gym.”
Inde Navarrette’s monologue! https://t.co/l4KCxVpyfS
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) November 1, 2026
The remark lampooned a joke Gillis made during his October 10 appearance as SNL guest host, when he declared in his opening monologue, “I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?
The crude attempt at humour unsurprisingly struck a nerve, and while misogyny masquerading as stand-up comedy is hardly a novel occurrence, such rhetoric carries particular weight in the wake of revelations surrounding the Cornell Seven, revealing the derogatory ways men speak about women in private.
Gillis’ remarks subsequently drew a slew of criticism, with several celebrities publicly condemning the joke. Among them was actor Dan Levy, who took to Instagram to deliver his own unequivocal response. “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists.”
RELATED: When Will Comedy Stop Being A Weapon Against Women?
Who Is Inde Navarrette Dating?
Of course, taking Gillis to task was far from the only memorable moment of Navarrette’s hosting debut. Elsewhere in her opening monologue, the actress poked fun at the unnerving nature of her star-making role in Obsession, offering audiences a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into her off-screen romantic life.
“You probably know me from the movie Obsession. People ask me if I’m anything like my character Nikki, and I’m like, no. No, no, don’t do that.”
She continued, “But the thing is, I’m nothing like my character in Obsession. Like, my boyfriend is here tonight to support me,” she continued, as the camera panned to her partner, Nick Aiello, who was duct-taped in his seat in the audience. “We have such a chill relationship, right?”
Aiello, a singer-songwriter from San Diego, has been pictured alongside Navarrette multiple times, with the two seen holidaying in Thailand and even attending Coachella together. While the couple keep their relationship relatively private, it seems they’ve been together for at least a year.
Aiello also happens to be friends with High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star Joshua Bassett (the man who allegedly inspired Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License”) and the two even performed together in San Diego.
After hosting SNL, Navarrette and Aiello attended the after-party together, alongside Gracie Abrams who was the musical guest for the episode.
