Kate Beckinsale does not like people feeling sorry for her, and she's usually quick to let them know.

When fans expressed concerns this year about her appearance, she accused them of 'insidious bullying'.

'Any time I post anything… I am accused of having had unrecognisable surgery, using Botox or fillers, or being obsessed with looking younger,' the 51-year-old actress wrote online. 'I don't actually do any of those things.'

In May, when a social media fan said she looked 'a bit thin', she hit back: 'The fact that you fancy girls who are heavier than I am does not feature in things that are important or relevant.'

And when she was seen in a wheelchair last November with an ice pack around her head, she insisted she had absolutely not just had plastic surgery, but had simply been to the dentist.

'I'm sorry for setting a bad example and not letting myself get an infection, not treat it, get sepsis and die,' she retorted angrily.

Her Instagram profile – which has 5.6million followers – is full of defiant pictures of her in thigh-high dresses, lacy underwear and skimpy swimsuits, one of which bears the slogan in glittery ink: 'I Did Not Ask Your Opinion'.

One can safely assume, therefore, that she will be bristling at the comments on her latest public appearance, a red-carpet event in LA last week.

Dressed in a corseted pink satin mini-dress and platform stilettos, she cut a striking figure. Yet concerns about her weight and the subject of cosmetic surgery were at the fore again.

'What does Hollywood have against ageing gracefully?' asked one fan.

Another said: 'She used to be a bombshell. I don't even recognise her now.'

Despite living in Hollywood, land of the celebrity 'tweakment', since the Nineties, British-born Kate has repeatedly denied having any cosmetic help.

In fact, she says, a condition called mast cell activation syndrome means she 'can't take the risk' of such treatments because her body is prone to severe allergic reactions.

The only cosmetic treatment she admits to having is platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP), a so-called 'blood facial', in which plasma is taken from the blood and injected into the skin.

But for those close to the actress, there are more pressing concerns than her appearance. For the star of the 2001 film Pearl Harbor and the Underworld vampire franchise, whose latest film, Canary Black, is ranked No1 on Amazon Prime, has had her life torn apart over and over again.

A year ago, Kate posted a Sylvia Plath quote: 'If I get through this year, no matter how badly, it will be the biggest victory I've ever done.'

A close contact of Kate said: 'It's been a rough time and it continues to be a rough time.

'She's been very open about it. She could hide away and stay at home, but she doesn't want to do that. She likes dressing up and going out. She has a movie to promote.'

Having lost her dad, Richard Beckinsale, the star of Porridge and Rising Damp, in 1979 when she was just five, this year she lost another father figure, her stepfather – the man she called 'My BFG, my Roy' – who died of a stroke in January at 87.

Roy Battersby, the director of TV greats including Inspector Morse, Cracker and A Touch Of Frost, came into Kate's life three years after her father died.

In a video to fans on Father's Day, she said: 'I'm two down now. This is my first time since between the ages of five and eight that I don't have anyone to call today.'

Kate's mother, the actress Judy Loe, 77, has had health struggles of her own, quietly battling stage-four breast cancer for six years.

And Kate herself spent six weeks in hospital this year, suffering from a torn oesophagus – which she says was 'caused by the stress of a whole year'. To compound her pain, her Persian cat, Clive, died last June at 19 – leaving her 'totally broken'.

Then, most recently, she became embroiled in a legal battle with an LA spa owner who accused her of owing £2,000 for massages – and whom she has accused of sexual assault, an allegation he denies.

Born in Chiswick, west London, an only child to Judy and Richard, Kate has lived her whole life in the spotlight, making her screen debut at four in a cameo appearance on a 1977 episode of This is Your Life dedicated to her dad.

Richard died at 31 two years later in his sleep from a heart attack brought on by undiagnosed coronary artery disease.

Tragically, that same night, Kate's mother was in hospital, recovering from an operation to unblock her fallopian tubes, so she could have more children.

When she emerged, she learned her operation had been a success, but that her husband had died.

Kate, who had been looked after by a family friend who came to babysit her at home, says she still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder 'from discovering my very

young father's almost-dead body as a very young child alone in the night' – a trauma which has been 'reactivated' by losing Roy all these years later.

Every year on Richard's birthday and the day he died, she posts a tribute on social media. Recently, she wrote: 'I don't remember what not missing him feels like. It is part of me, like my blood.'

In 1983, her mother met Roy and Kate found herself with five teenage step-siblings, leaving her feeling 'invaded'.

By the age of 11, she was in therapy. At 15, she started chain-smoking and developed anorexia – at her lowest point she weighed five stone.

Despite her unhappiness, Kate, who has an IQ of 152, excelled at her all-girls' school in west London, before gaining a place at Oxford to read French and Russian literature.

At the end of her first year, she was cast in Kenneth Branagh's film of Much Ado About Nothing, playing the virginal Hero alongside Emma Thompson and Keanu Reeves. It grossed £17million, and Kate became a rising star.

Then, while appearing in The Seagull on stage in Bath she met Welsh actor Michael Sheen. They fell in love, moved to the US and Kate hit the big time with a leading role in Pearl Harbor. In 1999 their daughter, Lily, was born.

Her career was blossoming, but Kate found herself grappling with sexism, including a 'business' meeting with shamed producer Harvey Weinstein in which he opened his hotel room door wearing a bathrobe. Her relationship with Sheen was suffering, too. Just 25 when she had Lily and thousands of miles from family, it was a lonely time.

In 2003, they separated. She went on to marry the US director of Underworld, Len Wiseman, divorcing nine years later.

Sheen, 55, found love with Swedish actress Anna Lundberg, 30, but Kate hasn't settled, despite a series of flings with younger men.

She calls herself 'goofy', refusing to live down to the stereotype of an older woman in LA. At her 50th birthday last year she came as a Playboy bunny.

In Canary Black, in which she plays a CIA agent, she is proud of the fact that she did her own stunts. 'She was determined to do them herself,' a friend says. 'She got some really nasty injuries.'

Kate splits her time between LA and London, where she is inseparable from her mother. A recent Instagram clip shows them larking about in a playground, where she films Judy doing hopscotch.

'If my mother has taught me anything, it's when life sends you something unexpected, you've got to still laugh,' she said recently. 'We have and will get through anything.'