Witherspoon spoke out after saying in an interview that a fellow actress “doesn’t talk to me anymore” due to a speech she once gave
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Reese Witherspoon is setting the record straight on speculation about her friendship with Kate Winslet.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE alongside her You’re Cordially Invited costar Will Ferrell, Witherspoon, 48, brought up a time she presented an award to a fellow actress (whom she did not name) and said the speech was so embarrassing that “we’re not friends anymore.”
“Not even kidding,” Witherspoon said with a laugh in the interview, “she doesn’t talk to me anymore!”
After internet sleuths investigated, the general consensus online became that Witherspoon was referring to Winslet, digging up a speech Witherspoon gave at the BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards in 2007.
However, Witherspoon spoke out on her Instagram Stories on Saturday, Feb. 1, to deny that she and Winslet, 49, ever had bad blood.
“Hey guys .. just spoke to my very dear friend for years, Kate W. We laughed about this stupidity. Please do not believe the internet,” Witherspoon wrote. “We are good friends and have never had any falling out.”
On another slide, the Oscar winner added, “This is completely UNTRUE …so silly!”
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Well after that 2007 speech, Witherspoon and Winslet were presenters onstage together at the 2016 Oscars, where they were photographed chatting and hugging at the ceremony.
In the PEOPLE interview, Witherspoon said the cringey speech “literally haunts me,” and explained, “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.”
She described the event as “British,” “elegant” and “classy” — the opposite of her speech’s tone: “I was like, ‘Remember the time we got laser hair removal?’ I’m still embarrassed about it.”
Witherspoon went on, “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.”
