Kate Beckinsale Links Weight Loss to Grief Over Parents' Deaths

Kate Beckinsale, the 52-year-old British actress, shared an emotional video on Instagram on Wednesday, addressing online criticism of her recent weight loss and attributing it to profound grief following the deaths of her mother and stepfather.

In the video, posted on December 31, Beckinsale reflected on what she described as a particularly difficult year. She explained that the loss of her mother, Judy Loe, who died on July 15 at age 73 after battling stage 4 cancer, compounded the pain from her stepfather Roy Battersby's death in January 2024. Battersby, a television director known for shows like Inspector Morse and Cracker, had suffered a massive stroke while undergoing treatment for two forms of cancer. Beckinsale also recalled the trauma of witnessing her biological father, actor Richard Beckinsale, die of a heart attack in 1979 when she was just five years old.

Beckinsale, visibly tearful, described how these back-to-back losses have physically manifested as a loss of appetite. "It's like my body has closed down," she said. "I think it's shock and trauma. I think watching, especially alone, the people that you love the most dearly suffer and have horrific and sometimes...