After a brief and mysterious hospital stay, Kate Beckinsale made her return to the spotlight earlier this week at the King's Trust Gala in NYC, which HELLO! attended.
However, the actress, 50, took to social media days after to call out her followers for leaving disparaging comments about her appearance and speculating whether she'd had plastic surgery.
Despite having spoken about the matter in the past, the star shared a pair of videos of herself that she'd surmised were nearly 20 years apart, a throwback with a clip behind-the-scenes from Thursday's gala night.
"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," she started.
"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 [unrecognizable] 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 categorically stated that she'd never had plastic surgery, going so far as to get a professional plastic surgeon to verify as such, and was frustrated that most of the negative comments seemed to come from other women.
"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 [immobilized] by that anxiety."
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While highlighting the irony of being called out for aging despite being so scared of it, she broke down how she'd really changed over the years.
"As you can see from these two videos, what is different is that I lived in the UK, and was paler, I used to pluck the [expletive] out of my eyebrows, I loved that brown lipstick that everybody wore."
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"I had a fuller face, as most of us do in our late teens and 20s. Makeup techniques were matte, not nearly so glossy. I thought contours were something I found difficult in geography lessons."
She powerfully concluded: "I'm posting this knowing full well that it will have absolutely no effect. 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."
Kate received waves of support from fans and celebrity friends, including a sweet comment from Lauren Sanchez, who penned: "Kate, you are one of the most beautiful women in the world."
"Not just on the outside but on the inside too. You have so many women who look up to you for all the kindness and love you put into everything. I admire you so much. Sending you love."