Kate Beckinsale has thanked fans for their support after opening up about the abuse she receives on social media.
The Pearl Harbour actress, 50, shared a post on Instagram on Sunday explaining that, while she finds it hard to deal with the hate she gets on the picture sharing app – mostly from “tw*tty men”, she stays on the platform because she believes in the “possibility of it being such a loving and positive force”.
Giving an example of a positive experience she’d had, she shared a short clip from an appearance she made on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
She told how after being on the show – which saw her tell a story about her fake sneeze – a mother of an autistic seven-year old said his first ever word.
Beckinsale wrote in the accompanying caption: “So – those of you who have been following my stories the last couple of days have definitely had a little insight into the fairly constant f**kwittery and bullying that I can receive pretty regularly on this app.
“What I want to say is first of all, I have been overwhelmed by the number of supportive and incredible messages I have received from kind strangers that outnumber and outweigh the a**eholes by two million percent .
“The second is this, and the reason I feel social media has the possibility of being such a loving and positive force – a few years ago I went on Fallon and told this story about my fake sneeze.
“I received a DM a week or so later (which sadly got lost) from a woman who said her autistic 7 year old son had been entirely non verbal forever, and then became obsessed with this sneezing clip, kept requesting it over and over, and then suddenly said the first word he has ever said in his life and the word was ‘Achoo.’
She added: “May I thank all of you and most particularly that lady who I wish would message me again so I can thank her properly.
“She and you are why I stay on here and why I feel people are ultimately good and the chance to connect with strangers can be such an incredible gift.
“Unless you are a farty t**tty man who thinks women should stay in the kitchen or some other irritant in which case it’s a gift in the sense of a poo wrapped in some sweating cling film. Love you, you the good ones, you the achoo-ing ones xxx.”
