Kate Beckinsale has broken her silence about why she was hospitalized earlier this year.
The 50-year-old actor spoke candidly about her health in the comments of a since-deleted Instagram post, which featured clips of her dancing. The remark came after a critic commented about her appearance, claiming she looked “too thin”.
While hitting back at the criticism, Beckinsale shared why she was in the hospital earlier this year.
“I spent six weeks in hospital due to copiously vomiting blood from a Mallory Weiss tear caused by the stress of a whole year ripping a hole between my oesophagus [sic] and stomach,” she wrote in the comments of her since-deleted post, as reported by US Weekly.
She also explained that she “experienced a severe flare of [her] mast cell disease” which was “mitigated by stress, shock, and grief”. Two months after Beckinsale revealed she was hospitalized, her stepfather Roy Battersby passed away from a brief illness.
“That’s what I am prepared to disclose that has contributed to some weight loss,” she continued in the comment, while opening up about being hospitalized amid her grief. “What you think of my appearance and how I should look, independently of any circumstances in my life and my family’s is not important.”
She went on to discuss how she’s been examining her childhood trauma, after her father Richard Beckinsale died when she was five years old.
“I am trying to survive what feel like unbearable losses, reactivated PTSD from discovering my very young fathers’s almost dead body as a very young child alone in the night, and working to support the family I have left,” she added.
The Widow star then sent a direct message to the troll, criticizing them for commenting on a woman’s body in the first place.
“The fact you fancy girls who are heavier than I am does not feature in things that are important or relevant,” she continued. “The fact you feel your opinion is required to bully females about their appearance is relevant to me because it needs to stop feeling like it is your, or anyone’s right. I don’t care what your taste in women is. I care that you think any of us need to be apprised of it.”
She acknowledged that she “will not address” concerns about her appearance on social media again, before concluding with: “Do Better.”
Earlier this month, Beckinsale also hit back at rumors about why she was hospitalized, after trolls claimed her face looked different, insinuating she had been using Botox or fillers. “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 wrote in the caption of her post.
“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 unrecognizable 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 Underworld star also shared that she once had a plastic surgeon confirm that no cosmetic work had been done on her face.
“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,” her caption continued. “Still, every time there’s a chorus of my God, you’re unrecognizable... it happens constantly and it’s usually women that are doing it.”
She concluded her post by noting that while she didn’t think the negative comments would stop because of her post, she still felt like she needed her opinion to be out there.
“I’m posting this knowing full well that it will have absolutely no effect,” she 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 first announced she was in the hospital in March on Mother’s Day in the UK. While sharing photos of herself in a hospital bed, she took to the caption to express her gratitude for her mother, Judy Loe, and friends who supported her when she was sick. At the time, she didn’t specify why she was hospitalized.
“Thank you to those that love us and support us when it’s s*** and try to make sure there are some bits that aren’t,” she wrote. “And for looking after our dogs when we can’t, and lead us to remember happy things when we can’t. And turn up when we are sick and sit with us... And send balloons and check in and pull us out of wells with love.”
