Kate Beckinsale feels "very grateful" she can still remember her father.
The 45-year-old actress was just five years old when her dad, actor Richard Beckinsale, died from a heart attack aged just 31, and she’s thankful she still has memories of him.
She said: "It was such a big loss and so shocking. I’m very grateful I remember him because if I’d been a couple of years younger, I would just draw a blank."
Among her vivid memories of Richard are the "cunning" ways he was lenient with her, such as when she wanted chips and ice cream for dinner.
She recalled: "My mother would give me 10 reasons why I couldn’t [have them together] but my dad would go, ‘Alright’. It was a disgusting combination."
After her dad’s death, her mother, Judy Loe eventually embarked on a relationship with Roy Battersby, but Kate wasn’t keen on the idea of moving in with him, his four sons and one daughter.
She said: "I couldn’t think of anything worse, these red-headed, terrifying, farting boys. I was very against boys at the time.
"I’d come from this little Catholic school in Sunningdale and they were in quite a rough state school in Kilburn."
The ‘Farming’ actress used to help her stepfather sell Trotskyist newspaper The News Line and was always grateful Roy treated her as an "intellectual equal".
She said: "Intellectually he was quite an imposing force, but he treated me as an intellectual equal. I’m very lucky with the parents I got."
When it comes to her own family life, Kate – who was previously married to director Len Wiseman and has 19-year-old daughter Lily with former partner Michael Sheen – is conflicted over the idea of having another child.
She added to Tatler magazine: "I definitely would, but then I think ‘Oh God, I annihilated my twenties and I suddenly get a taste of freedom and annihilate myself again?’ But I am open to seeing what happens…"
Kate Beckinsale ‘grateful’ for dad memories
