London - Strolling hand-in-hand, actress Kate Beckinsale shows off her latest much younger boyfriend.
Beckinsale, 46, is currently dating grungy musician Goody Grace, who at 22 is only a year older than her daughter Lily.
He is her fourth toyboy in three years, following comedians Matt Rife, Jack Whitehall and Pete Davidson – all at least 15 years younger than her.
Kate and Grace are rumoured to have started dating in January. Even discounting the disparity in their ages, they’re not an obvious match. Grace, who grew up in a trailer park in small-town Canada, wore a grungy cardigan and nail polish for their outing.
Kate, the Oxford-educated daughter of late Porridge star Richard Beckinsale and classical English actress Judy Loe, looked every inch the Hollywood star in leggings and £980 (about R22 600) Gucci trainers, and with her hair in a messy bun.
As her 4.1 million Instagram followers can attest, she now appears to be living the glossy life of a twentysomething Insta-influencer. Her posts include scantily clad workouts in her kitchen, endless cute pictures of her pets and bathtime selfies.
Kate, who was only five when her father died of a heart attack aged 31, has described herself as a "late bloomer" when it comes to romance and spent most of her adult life in two long relationships. She met actor Michael Sheen when she was 20 and had Lily when she was 25. "I was home with a rubber duck and a nappy," she once said.
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A post shared by Kate Beckinsale(@katebeckinsale) on Apr 9, 2020 at 10:31pm PDT
"I had a baby and stayed home a lot. I’d never been drunk, never dated anyone famous, never been in a bar with a sleazy producer and a line of cocaine."
After eight years, she and Sheen broke up (nicely) and Kate quickly married film director Len Wiseman. That marriage lasted 12 years. Four years ago, at the age of 42, Kate suddenly found herself single. And she certainly appears determined to make up for lost time.
She dated Rife, a stand-up comedian from Ohio, for a year in 2017 when he was 21 and she was 43. They are thought to have met while working out at the same gym.
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We are in a very specific toxic Easter dynamic over here
A post shared by Kate Beckinsale(@katebeckinsale) on Apr 12, 2020 at 4:55pm PDT
Recently he described their romance as "complicated" and when asked if he had advice for her next boyfriend he answered: "Man to man? Run ..."
Her liaison with Whitehall, 15 years her junior, seems to have been a fling. They were spotted dining in Los Angeles in late 2018, before making their way to a karaoke bar and finally a £2 000-a-night hotel.
Kate then dated Davidson, who is 20 years younger than her, for at least four months in 2019.
She excitedly described how he came with his ‘own bag of mischief’ while Davidson, previously engaged to singer Ariana Grande, 26, said his family "freaked out" about his much older girlfriend.
Kate and latest love Grace were seen leaving a post-Grammys party together in January. He launched his music career on Soundcloud and YouTube and was discovered by producer Cisco Adler aged 17. His best known track is Scumbag, released last year.
It would be easy to assume Kate is in the middle of a mid-life crisis, chasing the youth she lost with a succession of young men. However, psychologist Emma Kenny says we would be wrong to jump to that conclusion.
"Kate is a stunningly attractive, youthful woman who looks younger now than she did 20 years ago," she says. "As a woman with means and success, she isn’t requiring a man for any security, meaning she makes choices most likely based on what she finds attractive."