Britain’s own Kate Winslet very nearly made a shocking first impression on King Charles.
Winslet, 50, told Jimmy Kimmel the story of her first meeting then-Prince Charles in 1995. “It was a royal premiere of Sense and Sensibility when I was only 20. And I sort of hadn’t realized that we were really going to meet him. And so I forgot about the fact that I really was wearing a kind of a transparent lace outfit,” she began the story.
“Thank god I’d worn a coat because as he’s making his way towards me, I’m like, ‘nipples, nipples, nipples,’” she continued. While Winslet’s see-through lace ensemble was thicker to cover her bottom half, it achieved significantly less up top.
Winslet told Kimmel she was handed her cover-up just in time. “Someone just went ‘Coat!’ And I went, ‘Your majesty.’ I’m like basically covering myself in a cape.” Kimmel quipped, “That makes me feel sorry for the king because he’s the only one that doesn’t get to see nipples. Watching everybody curtsy all the time—there’s no fun in that.”
The Regime star said she had a less eventful meetup with King Charles this past June. Meryl Streep, David Beckham, and more also attended the star-studded event to mark the 35th anniversary of the King’s Foundation. It wasn’t totally without hiccups, however, Winslet shared.
“When Meryl and I were walking, she says to me, ‘Do you think we have to curtsy?’ And I said, ‘We absolutely have to curtsy.’ She was like, ‘OK, is it a big curtsy? Is it—like, what do we do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know’...She was like, ‘I don’t know if we need to do that.’ There was a big panic.”
The stars managed to pull off the interaction without offending or flashing anyone. Even if it had gone wrong, Winslet said she likes to go first in her party when it comes to doing scary things in public.
“I’m always trying to volunteer to go first because I feel like leadership is important, and someone has to get it wrong,” she said. “And it is usually me that does, so I don’t mind taking the hit.”
