Reese Witherspoon Fondly Recalls Her First Meeting With Kate Middleton: “She Did Not Disappoint”

Worlds collided in 2011 when a Southern belle and a British duchess finally had a meeting of the minds for the sake of charitable giving. Well, that’s how Reese Witherspoon described the time she met Kate Middleton, which is chronicled in funny detail in her new memoir, Whiskey in a Teacup.

As excerpted by Marie Claire, Witherspoon received an invitation to attend a Los Angeles fundraiser hosted by the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William soon after their royal wedding had sent the world into a tizzy. Witherspoon describes losing it after being invited and spiraling into a state of anglophilic wonder. “The scream that issued from my lips upon receiving [the invitation] — you would have thought I was going to die,” the actress wrote. “I wake up early, mind you, but on that day I was up at 4 a.m. doing my hair. That’s early, even for me. ‘I’ve never seen you this excited,’ my husband said. He wasn’t kidding,” she recounts in the book. “Jim took pictures of me in the car. You can see rays of happiness shooting out of my face. I love Kate Middleton that much. And she did not disappoint!”

While Witherspoon didn’t go into detail about when the duo discussed—the fundraiser was for Prince William’s Tusk Trust charity—the experience was nothing less than euphoric for her. “She was just lovely and warm, elegant and composed,” Witherspoon continued. “She also told a joke, and I immediately fell under her spell. She’s just as magnificent as she seems to be. She’s a very compassionate, socially conscious, deeply caring person.” She added, about the unique life of being a Windsor: “It takes a very special person to decide to commit to that kind of life, to choose to be under public scrutiny every moment. Now that she’s in that position, her entire life is in service, forever. I am so in awe of that kind of dedication.”