Kate Beckinsale backs Blake Lively as she reveals being forced to work ‘while bleeding after miscarriage'

LOS ANGELES, Kate Beckinsale has recounted her harrowing experience in Hollywood as she extended her support for Blake Lively amid her lawsuit against ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star Justin Baldoni. 

The 51-year-old actress recently revealed that she was “forced to do a photoshoot while bleeding after suffering a miscarriage.” In 2020, the ‘Van Helsing’ actress shared that she suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage years ago, as reported by Daily Mail.

However, she is now seemingly opening up about what really happens behind the scenes in Hollywood, and how she was forced to do a photoshoot just after losing her baby.

Kate Beckinsale backs Blake Lively for speaking out

On Sunday, December 29, Kate Beckinsale -- who shares her daughter Lily Mo Sheen with ex Michael Sheen -- shared a video on her Instagram channel recounting the traumatic experience she had to undergo while suffering from the tragedy. 

Beckinsale, who is “grateful” to the ‘Gossip Girl’ actress for speaking up, shared in the video that once she was told by her publicist that she would be “sued” if she wasn’t present at the photoshoot. 

The ‘Pearl Harbor’ actress shared, “I was forced by a publicist, that I was employing, to do a photo shoot the day after I had a miscarriage.”

“I said, 'I can't. I'm bleeding. I don't want to go and change my clothes in front of people I don't know and do a photo shoot,'” continued Beckinsale, before recalling that she told her publicist, “I'm bleeding out a miscarriage."

“She was like, 'You'll have to, or you'll be sued,'” shared Beckinsale, highlighting her traumatic experience. 

Beckinsale further revealed that she was once labelled a “c*** and a b****” as she protested when she had to wait for a “drunk co-star” to turn up to work for six hours. 

She also highlighted the supreme importance Hollywood gives to body image, revealing that she was forced on a strict diet on two separate movies which resulted in her losing her period twice.  

“I was put on such a strict diet-and-exercise program on one movie that I lost my periods altogether — that's happened twice,” shared Beckinsale, before adding that she has been “gaslit and made to feel like I was a problem, blamed and ostracised” within the industry.

Recounting her experiences, the ‘serendipity’ actress stressed, “I'm grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting that this is not an archaic problem that no one's facing — this is continuing.”

“And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you. And I'm sure that's the case in other industries as well, and it's just got to stop,” added the actress.

Kate Beckinsale stresses ‘everyone should be taken seriously’

Apart from her video, Beckinsale shared a lengthy caption in her post, where she wrote, “Everyone in EVERY industry should be taken seriously and not punished when something egregious happens to them at work.”

“And the difference, I suppose, in our industry is that it becomes something that is played out in the public sphere, and that can be very very hard to take , and because it is so public and so globally public , and very quickly becomes clickbait,it can also destroy someone’s livelihood, mental health and reputation and that can be very difficult to recover from …,” added the star. 

Presumably addressing the criticism, she wrote, “I’m not trying to say “wah poor actresses we all have it so difficult”- but I think this is a problem that affects every industry, it’s just that it’s a little bit more visible in ours,” before adding, “'And I don’t want our younger generation of actresses to be facing all the same things as we all do and did, but they have it even worse because of social media and how that can be weaponised to a literally nuclear level ,designed to eviscerate.”

“And it is very, very ,very easy to foment hatred against actresses, as was seen in the transcripts of conversations full of repulsively between the publicists and crisis team involved in this case,” stressed the ‘Click’ star. 

The actress noted, “Complaining about abuse should not beget more abuse ,particularly at work where there should be inviolable safeguarding in place , and it should not be expected of women who have been harmed, insulted, hurt, shamed or in any other way abused (mostly with at least 100 witnesses )to have to be ‘one of the boys’ and take it on the chin or face retribution for having been abused in the first place.”

“I don’t want anybody ,male or female who has a legitimate complaint to then have that weaponised against them in any industry, anywhere, and I mention this in association with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni because our industry makes things more visible due to the press and the public getting deliberately involved and led towards an opinion they don’t realise is deliberate,” shared the star. 

She also added, “There are far too many casualties of this , many of whom I know personally ,and it really falls to both men and women in our industry to be part of stamping this out for good. Also, yes, I am covered in cat hairs.”

Blake Lively's complaint against Justin Baldoni

Beckinsale’s vocal support of Blake Lively came just a week after the ‘Sisterhood of Traveling Pants’ star lodged a complaint against Justin Baldoni, 40, as a precursor to a lawsuit. 

In the nearly 80-page-long filing, Lively accused the 40-year-old actor of creating a toxic workplace including sexually harassing her and launching a smear campaign against Ryan Reynolds’ wife. 

Since then, as Baldoni was dropped by his talent agency WME, Lively garnered support from several industry insiders including Abigail Breslin, Whitney Cummings, and Christina Ricci among others.