Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon Were Friends — Until This Happened (Allegedly)

Knowing the inner workings of Hollywood friendships — both the ones that thrive and the ones that crumble — is always a treat. After all, much of their personal lives stay under wraps, aside from what we catch on camera during filming or at award shows. But that might be exactly what’s revealing the rumored fallout between two major Hollywood stars — Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet.

Allegedly, the two were once pretty close, even living in the same neighborhood and sharing a "knock-on-your-door" kind of friendship. But something supposedly came between them, leaving them not just on "less-than-speaking terms, but more like "actively-avoiding-each-other" terms. Here’s what we know about their alleged friendship — and what internet sleuths have uncovered that could explain why they no longer talk.

Kate and Reese do not appear to be friends, but they were once close enough that Kate reportedly asked Reese to present her with an award. And that is precisely what many believe led to the unraveling of their friendship.

During a January 2025 interview with People, Reese and her You’re Cordially Invited co-star Will Ferrell reflected on moments in their careers that still haunt them. When Reese asked Will if he had ever given a speech he immediately regretted, she dove into her own experience.

She explained, "So this friend of mine, who I didn’t really know that well but she was a very serious, proper actress, she asked me to give her an award. But I had never been to this award ceremony, so I thought it was like a roast. So I got up and I roasted her." Whoops!

Reese further explained that she found herself at this "elegant and classy" event, but unaware of how these ceremonies typically went, she told the audience that she and Kate had "contemplated laser hair removal."

She admitted in her People interview, "We’re not friends anymore. I’m not even kidding — we’re not friends anymore. I think she doesn’t like me anymore. I thought it was so funny and it was just, I had the wrong audience. It was pretty bad. Yeah. Not even kidding, she doesn’t talk to me anymore. Oh well."

In true internet sleuth fashion, fans began digging for clues. Just Jared uncovered a fan site that provided a transcript of a speech Reese gave at the 2007 BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards, where she presented Kate with the Artist of the Year award.

During the speech, Reese mentioned how she had "always wanted to be a European movie star, wear giant sunglasses, elaborate neck scarves, smoke hand-rolled cigarettes and have savoir-faire and gravitas," and, to her luck, Kate had moved into her neighborhood.

She recollected back to one of their meetings saying Kate "rang my doorbell and said, ‘Darling, Sam [Mendes] is off shooting, and I believe our children are the same age. Could they possibly have a play date? And oh, by the way, it’s almost 9 o’clock and I’ve had nothing to drink, do you have any wine?"

But that wasn’t the alleged comment that caused the rift. Reese also shared that they "contemplated laser hair removal" but couldn't divulge any other personal stories because "they’re all too bawdy or tawdry or drunken to tell."

Although neither Reese nor Kate has confirmed this incident led to their fallout, the timing and details of the event seem to align with the speech that still haunts Reese to this day — one that involved an ill-fated joke about laser hair removal.