Kate Winslet's Inappropriate Outfit Meeting The Royal Family Will Always Haunt Her

In June 2025, Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep got ready to greet King Charles III as they attended the King's Foundation ceremony. Being the Brit, Winslet went first after seeing that Streep was unsure of the protocol for meeting members of the royal family. The "Mare of Easttown" actor showed she wasn't that much more aware than her American counterpart, but at least she knew the basics. "She says to me, 'Do you think we have to curtsy?' And I said, 'We absolutely have to curtsy,'" she said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in November 2025.

How that was done, she wasn't entirely sure, but at least she made some progress in her protocol knowledge since she first met the now-king in February 1996. When Charles, then Prince of Wales, attended the royal premiere of "Sense and Sensibility," he encountered a much less prepared Winslet. Even though she knew she would be meeting Queen Elizabeth II's son, Winslet still chose to rock a completely sheer jumpsuit to the occasion, as seen below in all its glory.

Tom Wargacki/Getty

Winslet, who was 20 and not yet the "Titanic" star she was about to become, is mortified to this day. "Thank God I'd worn a coat because, as he's making his way towards me, I'm like, 'Nipples! Nipples! Nipples! Oh, my God.' And then someone just went, 'Coat!'" she told Kimmel. We like to think she curtsied before saying, "Your majesty," but that feels like a minor detail after choosing a black lace outfit. However, as embarrassing as the memory might be, Editor-in-Chief of Royal News Network Brittany Provance told Nicki Swift that the king probably didn't think much of it. 

Kate Winslet might still be haunted by the inappropriate outfit she chose to meet King Charles III, but she learned from it. As seen above, she chose an elegant — and modest! — cream-colored jacket that made her look like she had been greeting members of the royal family all her life. Besides, Charles is unlikely to have become scandalized by her past indiscretion. "Royals meet people in all stages and walks of life, so they are comfortable in almost any circumstances and with people in any style of dress," Brittany Provance said.

Provance cited Charles' 2012 visit to Papua New Guinea, where he was greeted by topless dancers. After all, Winslet was in her element when she met the royal. It would have been different if she had shown up in the lace outfit at Buckingham Palace. "It is always good to follow the stated dress code if invited to a royal event," she said. Outside of that, the royals are unlikely to be paying much attention. "If you turn up to a walkabout or just simply run into a royal on the street, whatever you're wearing is perfectly fine," she said.

Given that she nailed the outfit pictured above when greeting Charles in 2025, Winslet showed how much she has transformed between then and now. But Provance insists that there is no right or wrong, unless a specific dress code is established. In that case, it's pretty hard to get it wrong since the requirements are cut and dry. "The only other faux pas one could make would be to wear anti-monarchy slogans while meeting a member of the royal family," she said.