Kate Beckinsale has had a lot of highs and lows throughout her life.
Beckinsale lost her father, Richard Beckinsale, when she was 5 years old. Four years later, her mom, Judy Loe, moved on with director Roy Battersby, who became Kate’s stepfather in 1997.
While coping with the loss of her father, who was an actor, Kate followed in his footsteps. She made her acting debut in the British miniseries Devices and Desires. She continued to land more TV appearances and even snagged a role in the 1991 film One Against the Wind. However, Beckinsale got her breakout role in the 1993 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.
After finding success in the U.K., Kate decided to pursue more opportunities in the United States. In 1998, she moved across the Atlantic and got her first American role in the movie The Last Days of Disco.
In addition to finding success in the U.S., Kate also had several high-profile romances with Michael Sheen, Len Wiseman, Pete Davidson and more.
Keep scrolling to see Kate’s ups and downs over the years:
2000
Kate welcomed her first child, daughter Lily Mo, with Sheen whom she dated from 1995 to 2003.
2003
Sheen and Kate worked together on the movie Underworld but broke up after they finished filming. The actress revealed in an interview with IGN that she got her then-boyfriend a role in the project.
During filming, Kate got close to Wiseman, who was directing the action flick. The pair connected and ended up getting married the following year.
Kate also filed a lawsuit against The Daily Mail in July 2003 after the outlet published photos of her and Wiseman kissing. The actress claimed that the tabloid violated her daughter’s privacy after they ran a photo of Lily alongside the headline: “Mummy’s latest love scene leaves Lily unimpressed.”
While the Commission found that the paper “did not reveal any private details” about Lily, the pictures “were restricted to general observations.” The following month, The Daily Mail issued an apology to Kate.
2015
Wiseman and Kate separated after 11 years of marriage. The following year, Wiseman filed for divorce against Kate, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split.
2019
While finalizing her divorce, Kate began dating Davidson in February. The pair were spotted packing on the PDA on multiple dates. Us Weekly confirmed Kate and the SNL alum called it quits in May of that year after dating for nearly four months.
Us confirmed in November 2019 that Kate and Wiseman finalized their divorce four years after the director initially filed.
2020
Following her romance with Davidson, Kate clapped back at trolls who criticized her for dating younger men.
“I witness men constantly doing whatever they like, whether that’s in relationships, or deciding to buy a motorbike, or getting a tattoo,” she said in an interview with Women’s Health published in May. “It hasn’t been interpreted as, ‘Why hasn’t he had more children?’ or ‘Is he ever going to decide to become a parent?’ or ‘Why has he had so many girlfriends?’”
Later that year, Kate opened up about suffering a pregnancy loss while defending Chrissy Teigen, who had just lost son Jack 20 weeks into her pregnancy.
“I’ve noticed people criticizing @chrissyteigen … as if there’s some protocol during soul-scouring calamity that, if not observed, emboldens people who do not know her or her family to say how she should be handling the unimaginable,” she wrote via Instagram in October “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. There is grief, shame and shock so often that come with an experience like this, plus the heartbreak of your body continuing, after the loss, to act as if it had a child to nurture.”
2021
In July, Kate revealed that she had been separated from her daughter for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I went to Canada working and she couldn’t come see me,” she recalled during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan in July. “Two years of not seeing your child, to me, is the most preposterous thought.”
Weeks after the appearance, the mother-daughter duo were reunited at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Two months later, Kate was hospitalized in Las Vegas for back pain. “Feeling a lot better. Thank you so much for your kind messages and love x,” she wrote via Instagram in September alongside a selfie from her hospital bed.
2024
Kate revealed that her stepfather had died in January at age 87 and shared his obituary on her Instagram Story.
“It is with great sorrow that the family of film and television director Roy Battersby announce the news of his recent death after a brief period of illness,” read the statement. “He passed away peacefully on 10 January 2024, in Los Angeles surrounded by family, aged 87. Funeral will be held in London, details to follow.”
Following Battersby’s death, Kate called out the BAFTAs for not wanting to include her stepfather in their In Memoriam segment.
“Today BAFTA told me they ‘could not guarantee’ he would be included in their ‘in memoriam’ tribute to honor the industry members we have lost,” she wrote via Instagram that same month. “So a man dead less than a week somehow has to audition in front of a committee after a decades long career (in which he has been awarded from said organization the highest accolade they have) to decide IF his death is worth mentioning.”
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts later revealed they planned to honor Battersby in a later ceremony.
“We were very sorry to hear of Roy Battersby’s recent passing — he was a renowned and trailblazing director,” a BAFTA spokesperson told Us at the time. “Roy Battersby was awarded the Alan Clarke Award in 1996, a BAFTA Special Television Award. We confirm he will be honored in our forthcoming BAFTA Television Awards in May, and on the In Memoriam Section on our website.”
In March, Kate shared a series of snaps of her in a hospital bed for an undisclosed reason.
