Kate Winslet SkippedTitanicPremiere to Attend Late Boyfriend's Funeral: 'Obviously I Wasn't Going to Miss That'

Mar. 15, 2025

Kate Winslet and Stephen Tredre in 1996.Photo:Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty; Alamy

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty; Alamy

Kate Winsletdid not experience much of the mania that surroundedTitanic’s initial release up close.

Winslet, 48, appeared on the Thursday, Sept. 26 episode of theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast to promote her new movieLee, where she recalled that she missed bothTitanic’s 1997 premiere in London and in the United States — in part to attend the funeral of her late boyfriend Stephen Tredre.

“When it premiered in London I was really unwell, I had terrible food poisoning and I was actually in a hospital in London, it was completely weird,” Winslet said, after recalling that she first sawTitanicat a movie theater in New York City after its release. “And when it came out in the U.S. I was at the funeral of my boyfriend.”

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Winslet dated actor and writer Stephen Tredre, who died at age 34 from cancer in December 1997. Winslet and Tredre dated for five years and broke up in 1995, two years before his death, asThe Independentreported in 1999.

Kate Winslet in 1996.Alamy

Alamy

“I mean, it’s a terrible thing to even think about now, and obviously I wasn’t going to miss that,” Winslet recalled onHappy Sad Confused, which was recorded live at92nd Street Yin N.Y.C. on Sept. 23. “So I sort missed all of the everything around the release ofTitanic, which I don’t know — is that the universe’s way of protecting me from something or just reminding me to do the things that matter?”

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In a 1999 interview withThe Guardian, Winslet explained why she chose to attend Tredre’s funeral over the wishes of some in Hollywood who wanted her to appear at the L.A. premiere ofTitanic.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in 1997’s Titanic.CBS via Getty

CBS via Getty

As a result, Winslet first sawTitanic— which she famously costarred in withLeonardo DiCaprio— in a theater she described as “packed” with the company of friends, as she toldHappy Sad Confusedpodcast host Josh Horowitz.

“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’s packed. It’s a packed theater. I’m in one of those films where actually people go and fill every seat.’ That was quite strange.”

source: people.com