Kate Beckinsale is one of the most talked-about women in the world, making headlines for everything from her critically-acclaimed roles and red carpet appearances to her hilarious anecdotes (she was once mistaken for Kate Middleton).
Unfortunately, the 50-year-old also experiences the negative side of fame, something she spoke out about this week, calling out the "constant" and "tiresome" bullying comments that she receives on social media about her appearance, speculating that she has undergone plastic surgery.
"I hate talking about this because I hate adding to this conversation but I'm doing it because insidious bullying of any kind over time takes a toll," Beckinsale posted to Instagram, alongside two videos of her 20 years apart. "Every time I post anything - and by the way, this has been the case since I was about 30 - I am accused of having had unrecognisable surgery/ using Botox/ using fillers/ being obsessed with looking younger, and it's really such a tiresome and subtly vicious way to bully a person.
"I don't actually do any of those things - I've even gone to the trouble of having a plastic surgeon categorically state that I don't and haven't, and still, every time there's a chorus of my God, you're unrecognisable. Oh my God PLASTIC, oh my God, you don't even look like yourself anymore, it happens constantly and it's usually women that are doing it."
Her post continued: "Life happens - obviously I have aged, everybody ages; I'm not too concerned about ageing - because I found my father dead at the age of 5, I spent most of my teenage years and a good deal of my 20s absolutely crippled with severe anxiety and panic attacks that I was going to die of a heart attack too, and went to emergency rooms often, and was almost, at that time in my life, completely immobilised by that anxiety. The fact that one of the major things I am bullied about is an assumption that I can't handle the idea of getting older is so deeply ironic when my all consuming terror was that I never thought I'd even see the end of my 20s.
"As you can see from these two videos, what is different is that I lived in the UK, and was paler, I used to pluck the shit out of my eyebrows, I loved that brown lipstick that everybody wore. I had a fuller face - as most of us do in our late teens and 20s. Make up techniques were matte, not nearly so glossy. I thought contours were something I found difficult in geography lessons.
"I'm posting this knowing full well that it will have absolutely no effect," Beckinsale's post concluded. "It isn't going to stop. But I'm also posting it because whatever someone looks like, accusing them constantly of things they haven't done, or being obsessed with youth when actually, currently I'm obsessed with surviving loss, is bullying. Please stop now."
Beckinsale's powerful post has already garnered over 80k likes, with thousands of followers posting their support in the comment section.
"Thank you so much to all of you who sent such incredibly supportive, kind and personal messages to me," Beckinsale posted in response to the outpouring of love and support. "I am so touched and feel so horrible for everybody who has told me about their experiences of bullying."
We will continue to update this story.
