Kate Beckinsale reveals she stole piece of historic Hadrian’s Wall landmark during school trip

British actor says she was eight years old when she tried to steal a piece of historic landmark

Kate Beckinsale has shared an amusing story from her childhood.

The actor, 50, recently recalled a trip she took with her school to Hadrian’s Wall, a historic landmark in the north of England, when she was eight years old. Beckinsale recounted the experience with a friend called “Chaps” in a text message exchange, which she screenshotted and shared to her Instagram Story.

“On a primary school trip to Hadrian’s Wall I saw a bit of wall that had loads of sparkly bit in. And I snaffled it and put it in my rucksack. It weighed about three stone and so did I,” she began the story.

However, the Van Helsing star explained that her efforts to steal a piece of the monument - a 73-mile long defensive frontier built by the Roman army in 122 AD - were soon thwarted by her teacher.

“So it was soon noticed by a teacher that I was walking oddly ie bent fully backwards. And they said Katy is there anything in your backpack that shouldn’t be. And I too loudly shouted NO,” Beckinsale told her friend in the text messages.

She added: “And I think I think they suspected I had stolen some wall. And they said you have to put it back.”

In the text exchange, Beckinsale told her friend that she eventually agreed to return the piece of Hadrian’s Wall, but only if her teacher and classmates averted their eyes. “And I said I’ll only do it if everyone including the teachers turn their backs and close their eyes. I was maybe eight,” she continued.

When they agreed to turn around, the Underworld actor said she “furtively tipped the wall back with a massive thud” and joked that’s “how come I am not in prison now”.

Her friend then replied to her story, “That’s utterly brilliant,” to which Beckinsale replied: “I knew you’d love it.”

(Instagram / Kate Beckinsale)

This isn’t the first time the British actor has shared a surprising anecdote from her past with her fans. Last April, Beckinsale told her 5.6m followers that she was forced to move out of her home in 2020 because several men had been catfished by people pretending to be the Pearl Harbor star.

“During lockdown, several men had been catfished to the degree that they flew to Los Angeles from out of state, had been given my home address, and arrived on my doorstep late at night (on different nights, over a couple of week period) thinking we were in some sort of relationship,” she wrote on Instagram, adding that she had to move because of the catfishing incidents.

“My boyfriend at the time and I were completely freaked out, the catfished guys were humiliated and some of them arrested, the scammers weren’t caught and I ended up ultimately having to move house,” she explained. “So long story short, if you think I’m messaging you, it’s not me.”

The Much Ado About Nothing star also revealed in a separate post how fellow actor Keanu Reeves came to her rescue 20 years ago, while she was in the midst of a wardrobe malfunction. On Instagram, she shared a throwback photo of herself posing with Reeves, Denzel Washington, and Robert Sean Leonard at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

For the premiere of the Shakespeare movie adaptation, Beckinsale wore a green bodysuit and skirt with a silk cardigan, brown earrings, and a silver barrette. In the caption, she recalled some of the challenges that she had with her outfit at the time.

“Fun fact though: I had bought the bodysuit in the Sock Shop at the airport and when I got in the car to drive to the premiere with Denzel and Pauletta Washington, all the poppers in the crotch popped themselves open and it flipped up like a roller blind,” she jokingly wrote.

“I didn’t feel it was appropriate to go delving around in my undercarriage with all of us in the back of the car so I just quietly panicked. Walked out onto the biggest red carpet of my life and whispered to Keanu and Robert Sean Leonard what had happened.”

She then praised Reeves and Leonard for holding onto one end of her gusset, the bottom part of her bodysuit that broke, while posing on the red carpet.

“In this picture I am holding the front gusset down and the two of them are holding the back gusset,” she explained. “Absolute legends who may not even have fully understood the physics of what was happening or even heard the word ‘gusset’ before, but both jumped in to save me no questions asked.”