From losing her father, to her friend, to her unborn child,
Kate Beckinsale's life has been a long and bumpy road.
Kate Beckinsale was born on July 26, 1973 to actor parents Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe.
As she was growing up, Kate's father was a popular comedy actor in British television
who starred in many beloved sitcoms of the 1970s, including "Porridge" and "Rising
Damp." At the peak of Richard's success, however, he experienced bouts of dizziness
and started feeling generally unwell at times. After consulting with a doctor,
he was found to have no major health issues or concerns outside of somewhat elevated
cholesterol levels and a sensitive stomach, according to The Mirror. Tragically, however,
Richard died of an unexpected heart attack in his sleep on March 19, 1979. He was just 31 years old.
Losing a parent at any age is difficult, but it was particularly agonizing for
five-year-old Kate. Speaking with the Belfast Telegraph in 2016, she said —
"[My father's death] was 100% soul-destroying and totally impacted me forever."
"Yes, he's a smashing father to our 4-year-old daughter Katie. In fact,
as time goes on, they're less like father and daughter, and more like partners in crime."
To cope with the loss, she glued herself to the television and
watched his shows and movies as a way to keep his spirit alive.
Four decades after her dad's passing, Kate has continued
to remember and honor him. She wrote in a June 2021 tribute post on Instagram,
"Partners in crime for life and beyond. I'll give
you a big kiss when I see you. Happy Father's Day. I miss you so much."
After the death of her father, Kate Beckinsale began dealing with her
grief in a number of different ways — one of which took a turn for the worse
when she was a teenager. At 15 years old, Beckinsale began struggling with anorexia.
Speaking about her own experience, the actor later told The Independent —
"Although I know not everybody who gets anorexia has a parent that's died,
if you learn as a kid that seemingly fairly healthy people drop dead at 31 it
sets you up in a fairly crap way. And there's a certain amount of guilt that flies around."
During this time, Beckinsale weighed only about 70
pounds and would eventually have to seek out therapy to manage her
mental health issues. Speaking with The Telegraph in 2006, she simply stated —
"It was 17 years ago and there's not much that's applicable to me now as a
32-year-old woman. Let's just say that it wasn't a great period of my life."
Thankfully, with the right support system, Beckinsale was able to heal and recover.
Kate Beckinsale may be exclusively known as an actor these days, but she was once enrolled in
the prestigious University of Oxford to study French and Russian literature. During this time,
she also dabbled in acting, and eventually landed the first movie role of her career
in Kenneth Branagh's 1993 Shakespeare adaptation "Much Ado About Nothing."
Balancing her courses and a budding acting career wasn't easy, with Beckinsale telling
The Independent that as the pressure from both worlds started to zero in,
she felt that had to choose between the two.
The decision about her career path came abruptly prior to her last year
of studies in 1992. After contracting mono, Beckinsale temporarily went back
home while her close-knit group of friends remained on campus. She told The Daily Mail —
"My friends were party people and I wasn't [...] While I was home,
one of my dear friends there ended up jumping out of a window and dying."
The late friend in question, 21-year-old Henry Skelton,
had consumed alcohol and LSD prior to his death, and most of their mutual pals were
suspended following the tragic incident. Beckinsale reflected —
"When I was considering going back, nobody was there and there was this
horrible whiff of death everywhere. That was the reason why I didn't go back."
Being a celebrity means having just about every aspect of your life thrust into the public eye,
especially your relationships. Kate Beckinsale's real-life meet-cute with
Welsh actor Michael Sheen occurred when the two were working together in a play called
"The Seagull" in 1995. The pair connected right away and would welcome their daughter,
Lily Sheen, in 1999. However, Beckinsale and the future "Twilight" actor called
it quits in 2003 after working on the film "Underworld" together.
Shortly afterward, Beckinsale started dating their "Underworld" director, Len Wiseman, and
the couple married less than a year later in 2004 — which made many speculate about the swiftness of
their relationship. Speaking about the situation, Beckinsale told Entertainment Weekly in 2012 —
"The popular notion of how Michael and I broke up — that we were on [the first 'Underworld']
and I ran off with the director [Wiseman] — is just not true. If that were the case,
I think it would be very difficult and peculiar to have an okay situation."
For their part, Beckinsale and Wiseman were married for 11 years,
before ultimately breaking up in 2015 and finalizing their divorce four years later.
Despite both of her long-term relationships ending in the spotlight, Beckinsale has
maintained amicable relationships with both of her famous exes — especially, it seems,
Michael Sheen. Speaking about him in 2016, she told the Evening Standard,
"I really love him and like him and we make each other roar with laughter."
"I think the thing is, if you both really put your
kids' well-being first and share a sense of humor, you're sort of halfway there."
The loss of a child is an unfathomable tragedy, regardless of whether the child is born or not.
In the late 2000s, Kate Beckinsale was expecting a baby with her then-husband Len Wiseman,
but the pregnancy would sadly end with a miscarriage. However, the British actor kept
the tragedy private for over 10 years before finally coming forward to share her story.
Inspired by the bravery and vulnerability of model and social media personality Chrissy Teigen,
who had shared the news of her own miscarriage in September 2020, Beckinsale took to Instagram
to show support and reveal her experience as well. In the post, she wrote in part —
"Years ago, I lost a baby at 20 weeks. I had managed to keep my pregnancy quiet and
I absolutely collapsed inside and no one would have known."
Beckinsale also commended Teigen for publicly sharing the reality
that so many people experience on a private level, saying —
"Thank you @chrissyteigen for making sure it is abundantly clear how devastating this is,
and how life changing it can be without support."