Kate Beckinsale has been the talk of the town recently thanks to her relationship with toyboy Pete Davidson – who just so happens to be Ariana Grande's ex-boyfriend.
But in just a few hours' time, Kate, 45, will be making headlines for her talent as she takes on the role of Georgia Wells in ITV's The Widow.
She is back in our living rooms tonight in The Widow, her first TV drama role since her A levels. The ITV series is the latest addition to a glittering career on both small and big screen.
The Widow was filmed partly in South Africa and Kate says: “It was a leap of faith. I’ve been saying for years, ‘When my daughter goes to college, I’m going to be able to go off and do jobs that are far away’.
“The minute she went to college, they went, ‘Do you want to go to South Africa for six months?’ and I felt, like, ‘I’ve got to’. It’s been really amazing.”
The eight-part drama follows Kate’s character Georgia Wells as she travels to Africa to investigate the disappearance of her husband, who she believed had died in a plane crash.
But filming was demanding. She says: “It was incredibly hot — so hot, I ended up getting taken to the hospital one day after passing out.”
Recently, she has also been in the spotlight over her relationship with toyboy Pete Davidson.
Photos of Brit beauty Kate getting cosy with the 25-year-old US comic at ice hockey games and film premieres have been all over gossip websites.
Pete is famous in the States for his comedy skits on American TV sketch show Saturday Night Live and his failed engagement to Ariana Grande last year.
He gained notoriety with a tasteless “joke” about the 2018 bombing at Ariana’s Manchester Arena gig, saying: “Britney Spears didn’t have a terrorist attack at her concert”.
Speaking about Pete, Kate says: “I’ve never been in this position before — never dated anybody who comes with their own bag of mischief. It’s all quite shocking.”
Pete, not much older than Kate’s 21-year-old daughter Lily, adds: “People have a crazy fascination with our age difference but it doesn’t really bother us.
“Then again, I’m new to this.”
Kate, though, is not new to younger men. In November, she was snapped kissing 30-year-old comic Jack Whitehall.
A year earlier she dated another comedian — American Matt Rife. He was just 21 when they met, and last week he spoke openly about the relationship. He admitted: “It was complicated, for sure.”
Of Kate’s latest squeeze, Pete, Matt added: “I hope they’re happy but my advice is to be careful.”
Stepping out with a series of young men, Kate seems to be enjoying herself since her 2016 split from husband of 12 years, US film director Len Wiseman.
Although they are now on good terms, before their separation Len was seen partying with 28-year-old US model CJ Franco, known for X-rated topless shoots.
But Kate has proved she is just as desirable as a woman decades her junior, with her increasingly raunchy posts on social media.
In one, she smouldered in a black bodysuit, and in another she shared a snap of her cut-away red dress for the GQ Men Of The Year Awards.
Growing up in West London, Kate was the only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe.
She made her first TV appearance at age four, in a 1978 episode of This Is Your Life dedicated to her dad, star of Rising Damp and Porridge.
Just a year later, aged 31, he died from a heart attack.
Growing up, Kate had years of counselling over her dad’s death — and she also battled anorexia, at age 15, weighing just five stone.
Kate’s mum went on to marry TV director Roy Battersby. But actress and family friend Anna Calder-Marshall, 72, says: “I’m sure the death of her father is what led to Kate’s problems as a teenager.”
Kate herself says: “There’s an anxiety that comes with losing a parent very early. Ideally, you should learn about mortality when your hamster dies.
“Losing a parent puts you in a strange spot that you have to spend quite a bit of time making your peace with. I don’t know that you ever quite do.”
Last month she posted a tribute to Richard on Instagram, to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.
Under a montage of photos, she wrote: “Forty years is a lot of missing. Thank you so much to everyone who has been kind.”
After excelling at school, she studied French and Russian at Oxford University — but jokes: “Now I only speak Russian with the woman who gives me a bikini wax.”
Her Oxford contemporary Victoria Coren, host of BBC TV quiz show Only Connect, describes her as “whip-clever, slightly nuts and very charming.”
Others are less kind. One ex-student described her as “a rather bohemian figure in long coats and skirts, skinny and pale and not very friendly”.
Another claimed she was voted the “sixth most boring person in college”.
She quit Oxford in the third year of her degree and acting success came fast.
Kate won her first film role, in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, aged 20.
Two years later came cult TV film comedy Cold Comfort Farm — and in 2001, aged 28, she hit the Hollywood big time with World War Two romance movie Pearl Harbor.
In 1995, aged 21, she and Welsh actor Michael Sheen appeared in Anton Chekhov play The Seagull together and fell in love.
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They were partners for eight years and he is Lily’s father.
Though they split in 2003 Kate says: “He’s really dear, close family. I love him a lot.”
Back on our screens and more stunning than ever, fans also seem to be falling in love with Kate all over again.
- The Widow starts at 9pm Monday night on ITV
Widow is exotic and sexy
By Rod McPhee
AFTER years of dreary Scandi thrillers, we finally get a drama with some serious steam, on every level.
The Widow is a sexy adventure which takes Kate out of her comfort zone into the rainforest in search of the husband she thought had died in a plane crash.
And whether it’s in the chilly hills of Wales or the tropical jungle heat, she smoulders in every scene, while delivering a great performance.
To be fair, she has a gift of a script courtesy of Jack and Harry Williams, the brothers who brought us hits including Liar and The Missing.
Like the The Missing and spin-off show Baptiste, The Widow has a central character desperately searching for a lost loved one – and this standard Williams formula is perhaps the only criticism.
But it does thankfully boast the siblings’ signature twisting, interwoven storylines that keep you guessing what’s going to happen from one minute to the next.
It’s obvious that there’s been some serious cash splashed on this mini-series – which is partly down to Kate’s involvement, but also because it is a co-production with Amazon.
There are plenty of gritty dramas around, but The Widow is proof that they can still be exotic and ambitious without compromising on quality.
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