Kate Beckinsale Slams BAFTA for ‘Cold’ Email Over Including Her Late Stepfather in Awards Tribute
UPDATE: 1/19/24 at 12:45 p.m. ET
One day after Beckinsale shared her frustrations with BAFTA over honoring her late stepfather, the awards show has decided to pay tribute to him in a later ceremony.
“We were very sorry to hear of Roy Battersby’s recent passing — he was a renowned and trailblazing director,” a BAFTA spokesperson told Us Weekly on Friday, January 19. “Roy Battersby was awarded the Alan Clarke Award in 1996, a BAFTA Special Television Award. We confirm he will be honored in our forthcoming BAFTA Television Awards in May, and on the In Memoriam Section on our website.”
Original story below:
Kate Beckinsale is slamming BAFTA’s response in regards to including her late stepfather, Roy Battersby, in their in memoriam tribute during the 2024 awards show.
“Today BAFTA told me they ‘could not guarantee’ he would be included in their ‘in memoriam’ tribute, to honor the industry members we have lost,” Beckinsale, 50, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, January 18, alongside a throwback photo of her and Battersby. “So a man dead less than a week somehow has to audition in front of a committee after a decades long career (in which he has been awarded from said organization the highest accolade they have) to decide IF his death is worth mentioning.”
In the picture, Beckinsale is standing with her stepfather as he holds his BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) lifetime achievement statue after she presented him the award in 1996.
The late director, who died earlier this month, was best known for his work on several movies and TV shows, including Red Mercury, The Home Front, Leeds United!, The Body and more. This year’s BAFTA awards are scheduled to take place in London on February 18. The ceremony honors the best British and international contributions to film each year.
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“If his work, his life, his craft, his mentoring, his heart and soul are worthy of a mention that he is gone. That, that has broken my heart all over again,” Beckinsale continued. “I am paralyzed, sick and sickened and I will honor him and his work every day of my life.”
The actress shared that in addition to her mother, Judy Loe, dealing with the loss of her husband, she has also been “quietly sealing with stage four cancer for the last six years.” (Loe, 76, was married to Kate’s father, Richard Beckinsale, from 1977 to 1979 and moved on with Battersby in 1997.)
“So thanks again, BAFTA for your horribly cold email,” Kate concluded.
Kate announced on January 10 that her stepfather died at age 87.
"It is with great sorrow that the family of film and television director Roy Battersby announce the news of his recent death after a brief period of illness,” she wrote in a statement shared via her Instagram Story. “He passed away peacefully on 10 January 2024, in Los Angeles surrounded by family, aged 87. Funeral will be held in London, details to follow.”
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Battersby’s death came nearly one week after Kate attended the Golden Globes. Following the awards show, she visited her stepfather while he was in the hospital.
“Golden globes 2024 start to end,” the actress captioned photos from the awards ceremony, as well as photos sitting by her stepfather’s hospital bed in her sparkly silver dress.