10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kate Beckinsale
Published on November 23, 2015. Updated April 6, 2017There is something about Kate Beckinsale. She’s talented, beautiful and totally classy. She’s also pretty darn smart. While many of us are familiar with the British beauty and her work, there is so much that many of us just don’t know about her. We’re trying to rectify that. Here are 10 fascinating things that you probably didn’t know about Kate Beckinsale.
10. Smarty Pants
She studied French and Russian literature at Oxford University. She spent her third year of university in Paris, but then dropped out to focus on acting.
Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com9. Showbiz Family
Her parents were both actors. Her father was Richard Beckinsale, a famous British comedy actor, and her mother, Judy Loe, appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms.
8. Tragic Loss
When Kate was five years old, her father – who was only 31 – died suddenly of a heart attack. His death left her deeply traumatized and she started expecting bad things to just happen.
Photo by John Curtis / Rex Features7. Tumultuous Adolescence
Kate’s teen years were pretty rough. Still dealing with the grief from losing her father, she had a nervous breakdown when she was a teenager and developed anorexia when she was 15 and weighed just 70 pounds at her lowest point. Afterwards, she underwent Freudian psychoanalysis for four years, attending five sessions a week. “It opened my eyes to things, not to be afraid of facing these fears,” she told People. “I at least understood what they were and where they had come from.”
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com6. Not a Drinker
She doesn’t drink and she’s never tried drugs. One of the reasons that she doesn’t drink is because it makes her depressed. “Drinking just doesn’t make me feel well. I find wine very depressing. I get into a kind of despair the next day, like, ‘Oh, I must sit in the house and cry,’” she said.
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com5. A Born Writer
During her teen years, she won the WH Smith Young Writers Award twice, once for her fiction writing and then for her poetry.
Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com4. Pet Peeve
Kate’s biggest pet peeve is when people are rude.
Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com3. Her One Vice
She’s been smoking since she was 16. She quit for three years after she became pregnant with her daughter Lily.
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com2. She Never Felt Pretty
It wasn’t until she was 29 that she finally felt attractive. “I didn’t feel very attractive as a child, and actually I wasn’t. Feeling attractive didn’t come until I was 29 and with [my husband] Len [Wiseman],” she told Allure.
Photo by David Fisher/REX Shutterstock1. The Ring
She was considered for a role in The Ring, but lost out to Naomi Watts because producers felt that Kate looked too young.
Featureflash / Shutterstock.com