Barack Obama’s big birthday bash has been canceled.
The former president had planned a lavish party for his 60th birthday this weekend at his residence on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, with hundreds of guests, including Hollywood A-lister George Clooney and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, according to reports.
However, “due to the new spread of the delta variant during the past week,” Obama’s spokesman Hannah Hankins said in a statement Wednesday that the party had been “significantly” scaled back for only family and close friends.
“He’s appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon,” Hankins added.
Obama celebrates his 60th birthday on Wednesday.
He’d gotten a lot of flak for throwing the now-cancelled party, which required visitors to be fully vaccinated and have a negative test status, in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak fueled by unvaccinated persons.
