Kate Beckinsale Defends Chrissy Teigen’s Public Grieving Of Pregnancy Loss

Kate Beckinsale has defended Chrissy Teigen from criticism after grieving online over her pregnancy loss. 

She posted a long statement to Instagram, alongside photos of herself in hospital with Legend, which drew the ire of those who believed grieving should be private. However, the Underworld actor has since leaped to Teigen’s defence.

The Van Helsing star wrote: ‘I’ve noticed people criticizing @chrissyteigen for sharing deeply intimate photos of the loss of her baby. 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.’

Revealing her own pregnancy loss, she continued: 

Years ago, I lost a baby at 20 weeks. I had managed to keep my pregnancy quiet and I absolutely collapsed inside and no one would have known. 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.

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.

Teigen had previously discussed difficulties during the pregnancy, such as a ‘huge clot’ at the end of September. The couple announced their third child – whom they’d named Jack – back in August, explaining he was the first conceived without IVF.

She wrote: ‘We are so grateful for the life we have, for our wonderful babies Luna and Miles, for all the amazing things we’ve been able to experience. But everyday can’t be full of sunshine. On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out. But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it.’

Beckinsale added: 

I think it’s an honour to be allowed into another persons grief, especially with a subject like this which so often puts a woman into that hall of mirrors state of life continuing as if the world hasn’t, for you, come to a bloody and terrible halt. Sending so much love to the Legend family, but also so much to the women and couples who have kept it quiet and suffered. I know there are so many.

She also thanked Teigen for ‘making sure it is abundantly clear how devastating this is, and how life changing it can be without support’.

Echoing the ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ mantra, Beckinsale concluded: ‘Let’s let the grieving decide what’s right for them. Send support or keep quiet. This is a really hard time to bear.’

If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.