By India McTaggart
Kate Winslet has admitted that she forgot that she was wearing “transparent lace” when she met the future King for the first time.
The Oscar-winning actress, now an ambassador for The King’s Foundation, met the then-Prince of Wales at the premiere for Sense and Sensibility in 1996, when she was 20.
Speaking about the event, Winslet said: “I sort of hadn’t realised that we were really going to meet him, and so I forgot about the fact that I was wearing a kind of a transparent lace outfit.
“And thank God I had worn a coat because, as he is making his way towards me, I’m like, ‘Nipples, nipples, nipples, oh my God!’ And someone just went, ‘Coat!’ and I went, ‘Your Majesty!’ basically covering myself in a cape.”
The 50-year-old told host Jimmy Kimmel about the meeting during an appearance on his US chat show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Kimmel asked about her association with the charity, which the monarch established in 1990 when Prince of Wales. It works to support people and the planet through a sustainable and holistic approach.
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The Titanic star, who will narrate a forthcoming film celebrating the King’s efforts to save the planet, also told the show about her recent meeting with the monarch.
Discussing her attendance at his foundation’s awards ceremony at St James’s Palace alongside Meryl Streep and Sir David Beckham earlier this year, she revealed that the A-listers shared nerves and protocol tips.
“Actually, there was a conversation about [protocol],” she said, adding: “So Meryl and I, as we were walking to meet the King, she says to me, ‘Do you think we have to curtsy?’
“I said, ‘Absolutely, we have to curtsy’. She was like ‘Ok, is it a big curtsy? What do we do?’
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“I said, ‘I don’t know, we’ll just make the most’, and she was like, ‘I don’t know if we need to do that’.”
Winslett spared her fellow Oscar winner any potential embarrassment and volunteered to go first, explaining: “There was a big panic because we didn’t know what the form was. Obviously, we had to curtsy.”
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During the reception, she told the King: “Don’t worry, I’ll be all in – I’ve got your back,” after becoming an ambassador for his foundation.
The Hollywood star is expected to mingle with members of the Royal family when she attends the Princess of Wales’s annual carol service at Westminster Abbey on December 5.
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The fifth Together at Christmas concert will this year celebrate how “love in all its forms” can reconnect us in a “fragmented world”.
Winslet will be joined by fellow actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Hannah Waddingham, who will give readings, and the singer Dan Smith of the band Bastille, who will perform.
© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2025
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