Kate Beckinsale has penned an emotional message after being ‘bullied’ for seemingly being ‘unrecognisable.’
The actress, 50, described the messages she has received as ‘insidious’, admitting that while she ‘hates talking about’ the matter, the abuse ‘takes a toll.’
Taking to social media, Kate posted two videos side by side. One was of her 20 years ago, and another was filmed this week.
‘These videos might be 20 years apart -maybe more. 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,’ she wrote in her caption.
‘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,’ she blasted.
Kate added that ‘life happens’ and, naturally, she has aged.
She declared that she’s ‘not too concerned about ageing’ because, having lost her father when she was just five years old, she proceeded to struggle mentally throughout her teens.
‘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 of my life, completely immobilised by that anxiety,’ she confessed.
‘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.’
Kate went on to acknowledge how, in the video from two decades ago, she was paler because she lived in the UK at the time.
She also over-plucked her eyebrows and ‘loved that brown lipstick that everybody wore.’
‘I had a fuller face , as most of us do in our late teens and 20s. Makeup techniques were matte ,not nearly so glossy . I thought contours were something I found difficult in geography lessons.’
The film star concluded by stating that her real and raw post ‘will have absolutely no effect’ and that the bullying ‘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,’ she wrote.
‘Please stop now,’ Kate pleaded.
She was met with an outpouring of love and support in the comments from her fans.
Instagram user outlandish_creations wrote: ‘Sadly some people are mean and jealous as you are so gorgeous! Bullying is horrid and these people are deeply insecure. You are a wonderful, kind and thoughtful human xx’
‘Beautiful then and now. So sorry people have forgotten how to be decent on here’, wrote sove_hdz.
Paris Hilton also showed solidarity, commenting: ‘Gorgeous 😍’
Kate’s post comes after her personal life was rocked by tragedy.
At the start of this year, she announced the death of her beloved stepdad, Roy Battersby.
Battersby was a director, known for working on major British TV productions including Inspector Morse and Cracker.
His most recent work was an episode of A Touch Of Frost eight years ago, while his film credits include Red Mercury and Winter Flight.
In January, Kate said she was ‘speechless’ and reflected on how she’d ‘fought with everything [she] had’ for him.
Then, following his death, Kate was heartbroken.
In April, she shared that she still couldn’t face taking down her Christmas trees for fear of erasing the memory of their final weeks together.
‘The birthday we didn’t know was your last,’ began the Serendipity actress in a poem for her late loved one.
‘There will be no FaceTime today / In the middle of my night watching you open your presents / No one received gifts with more joy / I can’t take my Christmas trees down / They were the last Christmas trees I’ll decorate with you in the world / This birthday/not birthday / Christmas/not Christmas / In April / Oh Roy, Oh God I miss you.’
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