Jennifer Garner was once rejected from Ina Garten’s cooking show

One of the most heartwarming friendships in Hollywood almost didn’t happen.

In her upcoming memoir “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” Ina Garten reveals that her assistant once ignored a letter from Jennifer Garner requesting to be on her cooking show, years before they became close friends.

“People who didn’t realize that the guests on my show were my real-life friends often wrote to ask if they could cook with me,” Garten, 76, shared in her book set to release on Oct. 1, according to People.

“[My assistant] Barbara handled my correspondence and always sent polite letters explaining how the show worked,” the renowned chef remembered. “One day, she casually dismissed a letter from Jennifer Garner because she didn’t realize who she was.”

Garten had a feeling about Garner, 52, and envisioned a friendship between them.

“She seemed smart, funny, and down-to-earth, very different from the typical Hollywood persona,” Garten wrote. “I felt like she was someone I could really connect with.”

“I reached out to her when we were filming an episode in Los Angeles, arranged to cook together, and, as we both suspected, immediately hit it off,” Garten continued. “We have been friends ever since.”

The “Deadpool & Wolverine” star had previously expressed her desire to befriend Garten in a 2009 interview with W magazine.

“I know someone who is a friend of hers, and she said she would introduce us,” Garner mentioned.

“I tried to get on Ina’s show. I tried to use my, well, you know… I say, use what you have to make the world better or for yourself! But eventually she just said, ‘I’m sorry, I only use my real friends on the show.’ I felt like, What are you saying? That we’re not friends? I know everything about you!” she added.

Garner appeared on Garten’s Food Network series, “Be My Guest With Ina Garten,” in April. They shared laughs while making cornbread and pizza crackers at Garten’s home in East Hampton, New York.

“I just have so much admiration for her,” Garten told People about the “Alias” actress.

“She is grounded, principled, smart, an incredible parent, and a great cook. She’s just extraordinary,” Garten added.

The “Barefoot Contessa” host recalled that she and Garner met around the time of Garner’s 40th birthday in 2012.

“She graciously invited me to her birthday party, which was fantastic,” Garten shared with People. “And what I loved about it was that it was 40 women invited to come in their sweat clothes, instructed not to style their hair, just wear it in a ponytail, and dressed in sweat clothes and sneakers.”

“And they were all wonderful women, and we had a great time,” she added.

In her memoir, Garten reveals some surprising truths, including a brief separation from her husband, Jeffrey Garten, in the 1970s.

In April, Garten shared on Instagram that writing her book “was a completely new experience for me.”

“There is no recipe for writing a memoir, and the process helped me see that what happened to me in my 20s and 30s prepared me for what was to come,” she said. “I’m so looking forward to sharing my story with you!”