Jennifer Coolidge Leaves ‘The White Lotus’ Creator Mike White in Tears at Golden Globes: “You Changed My Life”

Jennifer Coolidge may have been “killed off” on The White Lotus, but her love for showrunner Mike White lives on forever. The actor delivered a tearful speech at the 80th Annual Golden Globes Awards while accepting her gold for Best Actress in a Limited Series.

During her speech, Coolidge thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and her past collaborators, giving Ryan Murphy, Michael Patrick King and Reese Witherspoon each a shout out.

Eventually, the actor turned her focus to White and paid tribute to him in a way that left everybody laughing and crying (and probably crying from laughing).

“I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person, but what happened is they get sort of fizzled by life, or whatever. I thought I was going to be queen of Monaco, even though someone else did it,” Coolidge joked.

“I had these giant ideas and then you get older and think, ‘Oh, what the fuck is going to happen? And, Mike White, you have given me hope. You’ve given me a new beginning, even if this is the end because you did kill me off, but it doesn’t matter. Even if this is the end, you’ve changed my life in a million different ways,” she continued, explaining that her neighbors are speaking to her and inviting her to parties now that she’s held such a buzzy role.

Addressing the audience, the actor said, “If you don’t know Mike White, this is what you should know: He is worried about the world, he’s worried about people, he’s worried about friends of his that aren’t doing well. He’s worried about animals! He really is one of the greatest people.”

Coolidge told White, “You make people want to live longer — and I didn’t! Mike, I love you to death.” Throughout the speech, the camera panned to White, showing him breaking down in tears over her words.

The HBO original received four nominations at the awards ceremony, winning two: one for Coolidge’s performance and another for Best Limited Series, Anthology or TV Movie.

Taking home the Best Supporting Actress win, Coolidge beat her co-star Aubrey Plaza —who was also nominated for The White Lotus — as well as Claire Danes for Fleishman Is in Trouble, Daisy Edgar-Jones for Under the Banner of Heaven, and Niecy Nash-Betts for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.