Actress Jennifer Garner says she had head lice when she met actor George Clooney for the first time.

The mother of three children says that her daughter picked up the lice at school and everyone at home was infected, apart from her husband actor Ben Affleck, who was desperate to take his wife to a star-studded party, reports contactmusic.com.

The actress recalls: "They (hair lice experts) come over and they comb painstakingly through your hair... and then they comb this oil through... and you smell like a mixture of sulphur and rosemary and you do it everyday for, like, a month...

"So the time our family had this problem, it was a day where I had combed through, I was keeping the kids happy... and Ben said, 'Hey, there's a party I want to go to, let's go', and I said, 'I can't, I need to shower..., I'm nasty...'

"So I get in the car and I go with him because he acted like I was going to be high maintenance; I don't ever want to be called high maintenance... I am not a high maintenance chick. So, I get in the car and I'm like, 'What's the big deal, no one's going to notice...'

"We show up and the first person I see is George Clooney and I've never met George Clooney... and I walk up to him... and I'm chatting with him and I can see that he smells me, but he's trying to be polite."

Garner also said that she fears the encounter may have made Clooney think twice about inviting the couple to his wedding in Italy.

"People keep asking why we weren't at George's wedding... I think he didn't want 'Licey' there," she said.