Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen are on famously cozy terms. The two have dated for
nearly a decade, had a baby, and split up a couple of years later. How come the pair ended up having
this affectionate relationship after breaking things off? Today, we’re looking into their love
story, break-up, extraordinary post-romance relationship, and everything that followed.
The couple reportedly met when they were both in a 1995 touring production of The Seagull.
They began dating soon after. A few years into their relationship, Beckinsale got pregnant with
theri daughter Lily, the first child for Sheen and the only child for Beckinsale.
Amid her mainstream breakout with 2001’s historical epic, Pearl Harbor,
she said, “It was only when I met him that my life really fell into place, and then we
had Lily, so it’s totally changed everything.” They were together for eight years but split
shortly after Kate appeared in Underworld. Was it a dramatic split? We’ll get to that in a bit.
For two people who adored each other so much, it’s a bit puzzling that Beckinsale and Sheen never
tied the knot. Despite being in a relationship for almost a decade and having a child together,
the question was never popped. In one of her interviews,
Kate confessed that her “single status” made her feel embarrassed at that time. “I was too
embarrassed to admit I really didn’t know why Michael hasn’t got round to proposing to me yet.
So, I would make up stories like ‘when Lily’s old enough to be our flower girl, we’ll get married.’”
She actually asked Michael outright, “Why aren’t we married yet?”, and couldn’t believe it when
he said, “Because every time I was going to ask you, you did something annoying.”
“So maybe if I can hold off being annoying for a while,
then he’ll finally ask me,” Beckinsale joked. During their relationship, Kate even got Michael
a gig. She introduced him to Len Wiseman, who was directing Underworld, which she was
the star of, and convinced Len to hire him. “I said to him, Michael is a fantastic actor.
He’s brilliant,” she bragged at the time. “I said, ‘I really think you should use him for this. He
thought, ‘Alright then, he was Kate’s boyfriend, he’s bound to suck and be really nice to Kate.’”
And then he was blown away with Michael’s audition, and thought he was fabulous.
Sheen got the role and was involved in a few sequels. Post-break up — no big deal.
Little did she know that Wiseman would become her
husband in a matter of months after breaking things off with Sheen.
Indeed, it wasn’t long before the news of Beckinsale’s split from Sheen broke... and
she got hitched to Wiseman in a May 2004 ceremony. However, you know what happens when you assume…
“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,” Beckinsale said back in 2012.
“If that were the case, I think it would be very difficult and peculiar to have an OK situation.”
The ‘OK situation’ Beckinsale refers to is her and Michael’s co-parenting relationship.
“Michael is fantastic. It shouldn’t necessarily have gone on and on forever with us,
but he is one of my absolutely favorite people ever,” Beckinsale told The Wave Magazine in 2008.
“Michael loves her and I love her and Len loves her. I do feel like that’s my major achievement
of the last decade, that my daughter is totally unscathed and great. I am proud of that.”
As you should be, Kate Beckinsale. It wasn’t always such easy-going
after their split, however. Michael Sheen has recently opened up about their split,
admitting he was forced to return to Britain as she remained in the US with their daughter.
Speaking on the podcast Changes With Annie Macmanus
he revealed it was a time of great uncertainty. “Going through that experience of a relationship
breaking down and having a young child, and then because of my daughter and her mom living
in another country, having to make a life in a new place whilst going through that whole experience…”
The Masters of Sex alum explained that he lived in England while the now-22-year-old was with her
mom in the United States. The actor had no work visa to stay in America, so he had to go back to
Britain every time he left. Michael never knew if he would be allowed to come back in again.
“I ended up having to get work in Britain because I wasn’t really getting any work in America.
It really made me question certain things about myself.”
Thankfully, they were able to make it work. In 2018 alone,
the Underworld actor spent her birthday and the Christmas holidays with her ex. And two
years prior, she posted a photo of them in a warm embrace after their daughter got into college.
In an interview with Evening Standard, the actor opened up about their bizarrely affectionate
relationship. It turns out that kind of love is simple as long as there’s laughter involved. “It’s
so normal for us,” she said. “We split up ages ago. We have been not together far longer than we
were ever together. But I really love him and like him, and we make each other roar with laughter.”
The former couple’s bond can’t be broken, and they are known to document hilarious family
get-togethers on social media. They once even spent the holidays dressed up in bunny costumes.
“So apparently there are two meanings of the word ‘perineum,’ one being the area of the body between
the genitals and anus, and the other, the period of time between Christmas and New Year’s Day,”
Beckinsale wrote. The actor thought she was clear they were celebrating the second, but
Sheen turned up in an impenetrable onesie, “just in case he was ambushed by an excitable relative.”
Of course, Kate explained her hilariously bizarre pic with an equally odd caption.
It’s not the first nor the last time the former couple have played dress-up.
Once, Beckinsale got Sheen to join her in a two-person costume designed to look like her cat,
with her wearing the head and him bringing up the rear.
“I knew having a giant costume of my own cat would bring me untold joy,” she wrote. “I had
not anticipated the bonus amusement of getting Michael into it when he didn’t know what it was.”
In that Instagram post, she added a message to their daughter, writing,
“@lily_sheen, your dad is a sport.” Indeed, he is. Later that same month, all three participated in a
goat yoga class to celebrate Beckinsale’s 45th birthday. “Best birthday ever,” she
wrote. “We all prayed that the goat’s blessings would happen on Michael’s mat,
and they did.” She also thanked two goats for “knowing instinctively where to friendly fire.”
Kate and Michael truly loved each other — and, though their relationship is no longer romantic,
they still do. They’ve remained close over the years and became an outstanding co-parenting team,
who never fails to share a laugh together. After the couple went their separate ways,
Michael had a long-distance relationship with English ballet dancer Lorraine Stewart.
Post break up with Stewart, Sheen was linked to Midnight in Paris co-star Rachel McAdams,
but it wasn’t until six months later that they began confirming the rumors.
However, the famous Hollywood couple ended their two-year relationship in 2013.
A year later, the actor began dating American comedian Sarah Silverman. Kate praised Sarah for
setting a positive example in her daughter’s life. “I really love his girlfriend as well, and we
are really lucky that we both get on, and Lily gets on great with her,” she said back in 2016.
“Having as many strong females in your teenage daughter’s life as possible is a good thing.”
Sadly, they broke things off in 2018. Sheen now lives in Wales with his partner, Anna
Lundberg. They welcomed a baby girl in September 2019, tweeting, “On behalf of Anna and myself,
thanks to everyone for your lovely messages of congratulations. It’s been a wonderful,
bleary-eyed week full of love and kindness and extraordinary poo. #NotReferringToMyself.”
The Emmy nominee announced that he had a baby No. 2 on the way two months prior.
“Very happy to let everyone know that my partner Anna and I are expecting a little
angel of our own,” Sheen tweeted in July 2019. Even though Beckinsale and Wiseman outlived
93 percent of celebrity marriages, their union came to an end in 2016 after 12 years together.
A source told People that Kate and Len simply “had complicated schedules and have grown apart”.
Eighteen months later, Beckinsale dated 21-year-old comedian Matt Rife,
but their relationship lasted only a year. In January 2019, Kate embarked on a romance
with US comedian and actor Pete Davidson. Beckinsale was forced to fend off trolls
who criticized her choice, as one responded to a photo Kate had posted of her mother,
writing: “Dear heavens, Kate. Not Pete Davidson.” She hilariously quipped back:
“No, that’s my mother. Easy mistake.” Eventually, they broke things off, but
Pete spoke very highly of Kate and said once she was “one of the funniest people I’ve ever met”.
In 2020, Beckinsale was pictured holding hands with Goody Grace, a Canadian musician,
and it was reported he had moved into her home. They’ve quarantined together but, later on,
went their separate ways. Kate appears to be enjoying the single life currently.
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