Kate Beckinsale is opening up about her own experience with pregnancy loss, revealing that she once lost a baby at 20 weeks pregnant.
“I had managed to keep my pregnancy quiet and I absolutely collapsed inside and no one would have known,” the actor wrote in an Instagram post on Friday.
She shared her story, along with an image of a powerful quote about grieving lost babies, just days after model Chrissy Teigen revealed she suffered a pregnancy loss.
“There is grief, shame and shock so often that come with an experience like this, plus the heartbreak of your body continuing, after the loss, to act as if it had a child to nurture,” Beckinsale wrote. “Your milk comes in, with no one to feed. It can be the loneliest, most soul destroying period of time, particularly if you are not in the position of having an emotionally connected, supportive partner like Chrissy has.”
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Beckinsale, 47, pointed to people who have been critical of Teigen and husband John Legend’s decision to share intimate, personal photos of their loss, including images of their son wrapped in a blanket.
“As if there’s some protocol during soul-scouring calamity that, if not observed, emboldens people who do not know her or her family to say how she should be handling the unimaginable,” she wrote.
Beckinsale applauded Teigen for being so open about her grief and sent love to her and her family — and any others who have experienced something similar. She encouraged people to let the family process the loss in their own way.
“Let’s let the grieving decide what’s right for them,” she wrote. “Send support or keep quiet. This is a really hard time to bear.”