Why Kate Beckinsale Feels Connected To Prince William And Prince Harry

When Kate Beckinsale wound up in the hospital after her ovarian cyst burst, she still managed to make everyone else crack a smile as she suffered through the pain, and it was all because of USA Today. When the outlet reported about Beckinsale's health, they mistakenly used a picture of Catherine, Princess of Wales, aka Kate Middleton, and the "Underworld" star posted a screenshot of the article to her Instagram. In the caption, she told fans she was getting better and thanked everyone for their heartfelt wishes, but she hilariously finished by writing, "Back to resume my royal duties. William says hi." 

Sadly, Beckinsale's other connections to the royal family aren't so light-hearted. While Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and William, Prince of Wales, lost their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales at a young age, Beckinsale lost her father, actor Richard Beckinsale, when she was five years old. Both their parents were beloved public figures whose untimely deaths led to an outpouring of public mourning. So, when Harry finally got candid about his experience of losing his mother in early 2023, Beckinsale noticed loads of similarities that made her feel a strong connection with him.

When Kate Beckinsale appeared on Dax Shephard and Monica Padman's "Armchair Expert" podcast in 2021, she revealed that when she learned about Diana's death, she immediately understood what young William and Harry must have felt. "Seeing them in the context of other people sort of grieving for somebody they didn't know ― and I thought, 'Oh my God, I really know what that feels like," she recalled.

Beckinsale also saw similarities in the public displays of grief Diana received after her death, as it mirrored her own experience. "I remember driving around with people seeing [the same thing] when my dad died. And that was quite weird," she admitted. Growing up, people often told Beckinsale they would always remember her dad, Richard Beckinsale. They would then mention it was sad that he died so early into her childhood because that meant she didn't get to know him. Those words stung young Beckinsale because they made her feel like she could never grieve her father as much as strangers did. 

However, as an adult, the "Emma" star understood that these people were only grieving the loss of someone who meant a lot to them, and she felt happy her father had garnered so much love in his life. Over the years, Harry has shared eerily similar feelings towards Diana's untimely death because on the outside, the public seemed more upset than he was. Of course, in reality, the brothers were never the same after Diana's death. 

When Harry spoke to Tom Brady for an ITV interview in January 2023, he said that although he was naturally shattered about Diana's death, he could only bring himself to cry once at the burial because his emotions were all over the place. Harry shared that when he and William walked around Kensington Palace, they saw thousands of flowers laid out for their mother, which made them feel guilty because strangers seemed more torn over their mother's death. 

He explained, "Everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment." He also recalled that he couldn't understand why all the mourner's hands were wet but he later learned that it was from wiping tears. When GQ asked William about mourning his mother on a public scale, he answered, "The thing is, you can't bring all your baggage everywhere you go. You have to project the strength of the United Kingdom — that sounds ridiculous, but we have to do that." 

He explained that he understood why people grieved her on such a grand scale, saying, "My mother did put herself right out there and that is why people were so touched by her." Both brothers felt shocked by Diana's demise, but Harry took longer to accept it. In a "60 minutes" interview, he told Anderson Cooper he believed his mother faked her death until he was 20.