Catherine Zeta-Jones says she felt like she "lost a real family member" following the death of the Queen.
The Welsh actress, 52, said the news that Her Majesty, had sadly passed away on Thursday, aged 96, had made her "homesick" for the UK but "proud of my heritage".
The Chicago and Mask of Zorro actress said the Queen had been "a real inspiration" and a figure of "power and respect" throughout her life.
Speaking at the Disney’s D23 Expo on Saturday, Zeta-Jones said she had called her family back home and “felt like a little piece of me had gone”.
“I’m a big royalist and I love the royal family and what they do for our country,” she told the PA news agency.
“As a girl growing up in Wales, in Britain, in the UK, I had my mum who was the strongest, safest person to be with but I also had a queen.
“And I don’t just mean that she was a queen sitting on a throne, we’re at Disney where queens and princesses are the topic du jour, but a woman who was a real inspiration.
“I’m in a country that has never had a woman as a figure of leadership, of power and of respect, and so I shall miss her dearly.”
She continued: “I kept calling my mother on FaceTime and going ‘do you feel how I feel?’ and they said ‘yeah’.
“I don’t know whether it’s because I’m British but I just felt like a little piece of me had gone.”
“There will never be a queen in my lifetime again, but it was a very strange feeling. (I felt) very homesick, very proud of my heritage.”
Zeta-Jones told PA she believed King Charles would do “an exceptional job” as “the baton was passed”.
Meanwhile, Sir Paul McCartney has been among the celebrities looking back at his decades of 'privileged' times with the Queen - including when he made her 'giggle'.
The Liverpool-born singer met the monarch several times during her reign - for the first time in 1965 and most recently in 2018 when he was honoured for his services to music.
Recalling what was to be their final meeting, Sir Paul wrote on Instagram : "Because of my respect and love for the Queen and her fabulous sense of humour when I was given the Companion of Honour medal I shook her hand, leaned in and said, ‘We have got to stop meeting like this’, to which she giggled slightly and got on with the ceremony.
“I did wonder if I was a bit too cheeky after saying this, after all this was The Queen, but I have a feeling she didn’t mind.”
* This weekend, the Sunday Mirror celebrate the life of Her Majesty the Queen with a commemorative special filled with all the key moments from Britain’s longest reigning monarch. Be sure to pick up your copy of the Sunday Mirror to get the pullout.
