From Beyonce to Reese Witherspoon: 17 times the royals struck up surprising celebrity friendships

Many people understandably feel a little nervous if they come face-to-face with a member of the Royal Family.

But when celebrities brush shoulders with the royals, it’s hard to know who should be more jittery.

Over the years, their mutual ability to be unshaken by each other’s status has meant actors, singers, and sports stars have been able to add royal phone numbers to their contacts.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s meeting with RnB royalty in the form of Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z on the red carpet in London drew headlines back in 2019.

But surprisingly, it looks like Prince Charles was the first family member to meet Beyoncé back in 2001.

The iconic singer-songwriter performed with Destiny’s Child in Hyde Park for Prince Charles’s Party in the Park several years before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex got the chance to shake her hand.

Charles also beat his older son to meeting Queen Bey too. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met Beyoncé and Jay-Z in the US in 2014 on their royal tour.

The Prince’s Trust’s Party in the Park provided Charles with the opportunity to meet many celebs.

We may never know how impressed Shania Twain was when she met the Prince of Wales at the concert in 1999.

But Reese Witherspoon spilled all about falling “under the spell” of the Duchess of Cambridge when she was on tour in the US in 2011.

Witherspoon said Kate was “just as magnificent as she seems to be” and that she was “warm, elegant and composed”.

She also said photos of her that day showed “rays of happiness shooting out of my face” because of her excitement to meet the royal.

Look through the gallery to see some other surprising celebrity friendships.