Hathaway says that the 90-year-old “Mary Poppins” icon “brings magic with her wherever she goes.”


Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in 'The Princess Diaries' (2001) Credit: Everett Collection

Anne Hathaway has weighed in on a Hollywood queen's absence from her royal Princess Diaries 3 court.

Days after Julie Andrews revealed that she won't appear in Hathaway's long-gestating Princess Diaries 3 film, the latter tells Entertainment Weekly ahead of her Disney Legends induction at the D23 convention what she'll miss most about having the Mary Poppins legend on set with her as she returns to the fictional nation of Genovia.

"She's so warm and she's so gracious and she's so funny," Hathaway says when EW asks about 90-year-old Andrews, who starred alongside Hathaway in both 2001's The Princess Diaries and its sequel, which released in 2004.

Hathaway, 43, says she'll most miss Andrews' "sense of humor" when cameras finally roll on the project.

"She brings magic with her wherever she goes. She's this amazing love conductor," Hathaway says. "People feel so safe loving her, and she's so beautiful at receiving love and giving it back to people. And who doesn't want to be around people like that."

Andrews said earlier this week in an interview with Today that she's "not going to be in" the project, though Les Misérables Oscar winner Hathaway previously told EW that she's "100 percent" committed to working with Disney to make the film happen.

"[Devil Wears Prada 2] cropped up unexpectedly and took over the space," Hathaway explained to EW during an April interview for the Meryl Streep-starring sequel, noting that, while making the second film in summer 2025, "it became impossible to focus on both at the same time."

Hathaway led the first Princess Diaries film as Mia Thermopolis, a high school teen who discovers she's the heir to the Genovian throne currently governed by her royal grandmother (Andrews).

The first film grossed over $165 million at the global box office, while the second earned an additional $135 million.

The Oscar-winning actress took the stage Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif., at Disney's biannual convention, where she was honored as one of this year's Disney Legends — a class of honorees the company designates as having significantly contributed to Disney culture. Hathaway also praised Andrews on stage during her induction speech.

"How lucky am I that my first studio picture ever starred perhaps the greatest Disney Legend of all time, the incomparable Julie Andrews," Hathaway told the audience. "I got to learn so much from her when I was just 17. From the time I met her at the first read-through of the Princess Diaries, she showed me that kindness, patience...[and] hard work...[are an] unbeatable combination."

Other Disney Legends honored alongside Hathaway at this year's D23 event include Moana star Dwayne Johnson, songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, Disney Channel stars and musicians the Jonas Brothers, and more.

Among her prolific career achievements (including an Academy Award for her performance in 2012's Les Misérables), Hathaway has worked with Disney several times. Recently, the actress reprised her role as journalist Andy Sachs in the highly anticipated sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, which earned nearly $700 million at the global box office for distributor 20th Century Studios, which Disney owns.

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