One of the sweetest friendships in Hollywood never came to be.
In her upcoming memoir “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” Ina Garten wrote that her assistant once “dismissed” a letter from Jennifer Garner pleading with her to appear on her cooking show, years before they became close friends.
“People who didn't understand that the guests on my show were my friends in real life would often write to ask if they could cook with me,” Garten, 76, says in her book, published Oct. 1. People,
“(My assistant) Barbara used to handle my correspondence and would always send polite letters explaining how the show worked,” the famous chef recalled. “One day, she dismissed a letter from Jennifer Garner without thinking because she probably had no idea who she was.”
Garten said she had an “intuition” about Garner, 52, and predicted the two would become friends.
“She seemed smart, funny, and very grounded, totally different from Hollywood,” Garten wrote. “I felt like she was someone I could have fun with.”
“I reached out to her while we were filming an episode in Los Angeles, set up a cookout, and as we both suspected, we felt an instant connection,” Garten added. “We've been friends ever since.”
The “Deadpool and Wolverine” star previously spoke about wanting to be friends with Garten in a 2009 interview w magazine,
“I know someone who's a friend of hers, and she says she'll introduce us,” Garner said.
“I tried to get on Ina's show. I tried to use my, well, you know… I say, use whatever you have to make the world a better place or for yourself! But finally she said, 'I'm sorry, I only use my real friends on the show.' I was like, what are you saying? That we're not friends? I know everything about you!” she continued.
Garner has appeared on Garten's Food Network series, “Be My Guest” with Ina Garten in April. They laugh and joke while making cornbread and pizza crackers at Garten's home in East Hampton, New York.
“I admire her so much,” Garten tells PEOPLE about the “Alias” actress.
“She's so down-to-earth, principled, intelligent, a great parent and a great cook. She's extraordinary,” Garten said.
The “Barefoot Contessa” host recalled that the two met in 2012, around Garner's 40th birthday.
“She very kindly invited me to her birthday party, which was amazing,” Garten told People. “And I loved it because it involved inviting 40 women in their sweatpants and instructing them not to do their hair or anything, put their hair in a ponytail, wear sweatpants, dresses and sneakers.”
“They were wonderful, wonderful women, and it was a great time,” he said.
In her memoir, Garten made several shocking revelations, including that she was briefly separated from her husband, Jeffrey Garten, in the 1970s.
But Her Instagram In April, Garten said writing her book was “a completely new experience for me.”
“There is no recipe for writing a memoir, and this process helped me see that what happened to me in my 20s and 30s prepared me for what was to come,” she said. “I am so excited to share my story with you!”
