Kate Beckinsale slams 'bullying' online speculation over appearance

Kate Beckinsale has hit out at online trolls who have accused her of having plastic surgery.

The 50-year-old star has recently been unwell with an undisclosed illness she referred to as "tummy troubles" and shared images of her hospital stay on social media.

Now she has hit out at trolls who have accused her of having cosmetic surgery - calling them bullies.

Kate wrote on Instagram on Sunday: "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."

The Underworld star added: "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 unrecognisable 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."

The star went on to say that she had even had to get a plastic surgeon to state she had not gone under the knife in order to dispel the rumours.

Kate went on to write that the early loss of her father, British actor Richard Beckinsale, when she was just five, gave her severe anxiety and meant she worried that she too would die young.

"The fact that one of the major things I am bullied about is an assumption that I can't handle the idea of getting older is so deeply ironic when my all consuming terror was that I never thought I'd even see the end of my 20s," Kate revealed.

She explained changes to her appearance as being down to leaving her native U.K. for sunnier climes, as well as her changing beauty and makeup regimes.