Kate Beckinsale posted a cryptic message of surrender on Instagram Stories Sunday, weeks after she delivered an emotional video about living with PTSD.
The “Underworld” actress, 53, shared a photo of a street and a rainbow with the words “congratulations you won i give up” written across it, according to her Instagram Stories post. She also published a separate feed post containing only the word “bye,” with comments disabled.
The posts arrived without additional context, leaving followers concerned about her wellbeing. Beckinsale has been unusually candid about her mental health struggles in recent months, using her platform to describe experiences she said often remain hidden behind skilled masking.
In a now-deleted Instagram video posted earlier this month, Beckinsale spoke directly about the isolation of PTSD. She said people who “have seen or experienced levels of horror, terror, violence” cannot escape their traumas, but they should be recognized as “heroes.”
“A lot of those people become incredibly good at masking it,” she said in the clip. “And it’s sad because they become so good that they get no grace whatsoever.”
She continued that sufferers barely sleep because their dreams are “full of nightmares,” and that ordinary sensory experiences can plunge them back into anguish.
“Anything — smells, sounds, thoughts, feelings — can trigger them into a place that is actually like hell,” she shared, adding that because the battle is “invisible,” people should be “kinder and gentler” to others.
“It really is true that when you haven’t walked a mile in someone’s shoes — however fancy you think the shoes are — you have absolutely no idea what they might be carrying, masking, dealing with day and night,” she stated.
Beckinsale concluded the video by saying PTSD victims “are the loneliest people” who “continue to try and put one foot in front of the other.”
The actress has endured significant personal losses over the past year. Her mother, Judy Loe, died in her arms last July. She also lost her stepfather, Roy Battersby, in January 2024.
While navigating what she called a “really hard year,” Beckinsale faced online criticism about her apparent weight loss. The negative comments prompted her to delete all photos from her Instagram feed at that time.
Beckinsale’s recent PTSD video marked a shift toward vulnerability after that earlier conflict with commenters. In it, she framed survival itself as heroic and pleaded for greater public compassion toward invisible suffering.
The Sunday posts, with their stark brevity and disabled comments, struck a different tone than the explanatory video. The “Pearl Harbor” star offered no elaboration on what or whom she was addressing.
Her representatives have not publicly responded to inquiries about the messages.
Beckinsale has built a career spanning action franchises and romantic comedies since her breakthrough in the late 1990s. She remains active in film and maintains a prominent social media presence, where she frequently mixes humor with personal revelation.
The National Helpline for mental health and substance use disorders can be reached at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).