Kate Beckinsale, 49, shares tips for ageless beauty and slams surgery rumours
Ever since her cinematic debut in Much Ado About Nothing, which was made while she was still a student, British actress Kate Beckinsale has never been far from the limelight.
She hit the big time in Second World War blockbuster Pearl Harbor and has appeared in dozens of dramas and action movies since, including her role as vampire Selene in the Underworld franchise.
From taking home the Best Actress Award at both the 2021 and 2022 National Film Awards UK to joining Succession star Brian Cox in family drama Prisoner’s Daughter, the Hollywood icon – who’s spent three decades in the spotlight – is showing no signs of slowing down as she prepares to turn 50 on 26 July.
The actress has been unashamedly living her best life, regardless of what anyone else thinks, as she showed when she came under fire for briefly dating US comedian Pete Davidson, who is 20 years her junior, back in 2019.
“It can feel like a little bit of a political act to be a woman over 32 who’s having any fun at all,” she said. “I don’t mean doing drugs and drinking and partying, because I never am, but being goofy, and going out, and not going, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to sit home and anticipate menopause while crocheting.’”
Pete Davidson defends love life after dating Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande
It’s this no-nonsense, straight-talking attitude that’s won Kate support from women across the globe. While some may see the increasing number of candles on a birthday cake as something to be feared, getting older has never been something to concern Kate. So much so, she stated, “I think other people seem to be very obsessed with ageing in a way that I am not.”
Kate has enjoyed a lengthy, successful acting career (Getty Images)
The Succession star slams those who claim she's had surgery (Getty Images)With her ageless looks, it’s clear that Kate has nothing to worry about on the physical front and she’s still the same fresh-faced actress who starred in 2001 hit Pearl Harbor alongside Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett.
Where some have speculated about the secret to Kate’s seemingly eternal youth, the London-born star has shot down rumours that she’s undergone cosmetic surgery. After one social media user begged to know if she’d had a facelift, Kate explained that she’d had “no threads, no thread lift, no Botox, no laser, no nose job, no filler”.
Instead, Kate’s beauty regime is simpler, and she has the Great British weather to thank for it. While the sight of grey skies and downpours of rain may have us rolling our eyes, it turns out that Kate sees the positives when it comes to keeping her skin looking young. “I didn’t see sun for the first several decades of my life and that’s probably been a big help,” she explained. But when she did? You would catch her applying SPF to stop her freckles forming a “moustache” on her face, even when she was a child.
She thanks her actress mum Judy Loe for passing on her good genes, but she is also teetotal, declaring in 2003, “I’ve never even been drunk. I’ve never taken drugs. I’ve never had a one-night stand.”
Kate – who is mum to daughter Lily, 24 – isn’t afraid of trying out less common cosmetic remedies, though. “I do like PRP [platelet rich plasma therapy], when they take your blood [plasma, and reinject it into your skin]. That’s a real thing, from your own body. But not with scary poisonous things!”
With an IQ of 152 that’s reportedly the same as Mark Zuckerberg’s, Kate’s score puts her in the top one percentile of the population – and she refuses to be sorry for her smarts. “It’s really important to me that no percentage of women should feel they need to lie or dumb down under any circumstances so as not to be a target,” she once wrote on Instagram.
And that’s not all. In fact, it was while studying French and Russian literature at Oxford University that Kate landed a place alongside Emma Thompson and Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing. While her peers completed summer internships, Kate got her big break as she tried her hand at Shakespeare in the movie while finishing her first year.
Although she never graduated from Oxford after dropping out in her second year, the door to New College is still open. She said, “I took my kid to my college and my French tutor was still there. She said, ‘You can come back any time.’”
But while she may seem to have it all, there’s a sad past that Kate carries beneath the glossy surface. Kate’s father, much-loved comedy actor Richard Beckinsale, died suddenly from a heart attack when she was five years old. Richard was just 31 when he passed. “I don’t remember what not missing him feels like. It is part of me, like my blood. Always aware of how life can shatter,” she wrote in memory of her dad.
Coronation Street star's real life with two very famous husbands
Having followed in her father’s footsteps onto our screens, with roles in films including Jolt, Serendipity, The Aviator and Van Helsing, Kate knows the emotional draw that the big and little screen can bring.
The actress has recalled her mother owning “a million old video tapes” of her dad acting in the likes of Porridge and Rising Damp. It means that her daughter Lily has been able to get to know her late grandfather through his work.
Kate's late father appeared in roles for Porridge and Rising DampKate has been co-parenting with former partner and fellow actor Michael Sheen long before it became a buzzword. After calling time on their relationship in 2003, the pair have remained close and aren’t afraid of proving that exes can be on very good terms by spending Christmases together.
Known for her wit and dry sense of humour – her silly Instagram posts of her late cat Clive were a staple prior to his passing – it seems as though never taking things too seriously is the secret to her and Michael’s parenting success. “We’ve also got a similar sense of humour,” she said. “I do find that humour can help a lot of things.”
Since her divorce from director husband Len Wiseman in 2019 after 15 years of marriage, Kate has enjoyed a few high-profile romances, including with comedian Jack Whitehall, 35. She’s currently linked with actor Matt Atwater, 45, after the pair were spotted looking cosy together in New York.
With film projects on the horizon, including the forthcoming action thriller Canary Black, it’s clear turning 50 won’t mean Kate will be disappearing from our screens anytime soon.
Here’s to many more decades in showbiz, Kate!
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
