Kate Beckinsale Speaks Up About "Insidious Bullying" Amid Plastic Surgery Claims

"It’s really such a tiresome and subtly vicious way to bully a person."

Kate Beckinsale has called out online bullies and asked for the public to stop speculating about her appearance. The 50-year-old actress took to Instagram to share a lengthy post in response to persistent claims from the public that she is "unrecognizable" after alleged plastic surgery. In the post, Beckinsale claimed that the endless speculation was, effectively, "subtly vicious" bullying. The actress then opened up about her health-related anxiety and also claimed that she has never had any plastic 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," began Beckinsale in the post, which featured a video of her in her 20s and a video of her from this year. "These videos might be 20 years apart —maybe more. 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 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."

She added, "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, and still, every time there’s a chorus of my God, you’re unrecognisable. Oh my God PLASTIC, oh my God, you don’t even look like yourself anymore, it happens constantly and it’s usually women that are doing it."

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Beckinsale then explained that she isn't actually concerned about looking older. In fact, she revealed that as a young woman, she struggled with debilitating health anxiety.

"I’m not too concerned about aging — because I found my father dead at the age of 5, 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, and went to emergency rooms often, and was almost, at that time of my life, completely immobilised by that anxiety," she wrote. "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."

Related: Kate Beckinsale Returns to the Red Carpet for the First Time Since Being Hospitalized

Beckinsale went on to explain that her appearance has changed due to natural aging along with a new tan and a shift in makeup techniques. The actress then concluded with a plea to online trolls to stop their comments.

"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."

This post comes shortly after Beckinsale went through an undisclosed health scare that may have been related to "stomach issues". Beckinsale posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed back in March and made her first public appearance post-hospitalization in April.

"It's been a rough year," she said at the event to  People. "Because my parents have both been unwell and my cat ... it's been a bunch of things. So that's why it's nice to come and see friends and have a little perspective. Everyone's had a bit of a rough year, I think."

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