Kate Beckinsale says she has suffered “insidious bullying” from internet trolls who accused her of secretly going under the knife.
In an emotional Instagram post shared over the weekend, the Underworld sta, called out social media users who speculated she’d undergone cosmetic 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,” she began her lengthy post, alongside a throwback video clip of herself and a recent video from a public appearance.
Noting that she’s faced plastic surgery claims since turning 30 two decades ago, Kate continued: “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.”
The British actor said she’s never been “too concerned about aging”. In fact, after losing her father at a young age, Kate said she was more afraid of dying young.
“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,” she wrote.
Kate went on to explain that her appearance has evolved due to natural aging and the evolution of makeup techniques. She then pleaded with her online critics to stop commenting on her looks.
“I’m posting this knowing full well that it will have absolutely no effect,” she wrote. “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.”
The Van Helsing star added: “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’s PSA comes months after she shared a photo of herself in a hospital bed in March. She did not disclose what caused her hospitalisation at the time.