Kate Beckinsale 2012

Beckinsale was born in London, England, the only child of actor Richard Beckinsale and actress Judy Loe. She made her first television appearance at the age of four in an episode of This is Your Life dedicated to her father. When she was six years old, her 31-year old father died suddenly of a heart attack. Beckinsale was deeply traumatised by the loss and "started expecting bad things to happen". While she has seen her father "more on television than I have in life," "there are certainly enough memories for me not to feel that it's somebody I didn't know." Her widowed mother moved in with director Roy Battersby when Beckinsale was nine and she was raised alongside his four sons and daughter. She has a close relationship with her step-father:

"I couldn't have knitted a better one ... He wasn't pushy, he let me come to him." She has a paternal half-sister, actress Samantha Beckinsale, but they have never had regular contact.