Kate Beckinsale reunites with daughter Lily Mo Sheen after two years apart: 'The best birthday'

Kate Beckinsale is celebrating her birthday with a heartwarming gift: an in-person reunion with her daughter.

After revealing that she hadn't seen her daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, in two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, the mother-daughter duo reunited in New York to celebrate Beckinsale's 48th birthday Monday.

"The best birthday love love love love love," Beckinsale captioned her Instagram post Tuesday. In the photo, the actress has her arm wrapped around Lily, 22, who she shares with actor Michael Sheen.

Beckinsale previously reflected on their "ridiculous" and "preposterous" separation while appearing on“Live With Kelly and Ryan” Friday.

"Thank goodness for FaceTime,” the 47-year-old British actress shared, explaining how she stayed connected with her only child. Their separation was extended when Beckinsale went to work in Canada on a locked-down shoot. "But we're both panicking that we'll look really old to each other."

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The pair was reunited Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where Lily lives, a moment captured by photographers. Beckinsale was in New York promoting her new thriller “Jolt,” about a woman with anger management issues who shocks herself with an electrical device to control her rage.

"Two years of not seeing your child is, to me, the most preposterous thought. It’s ridiculous," Beckinsale added.

Lily is following her parents’ lead, playing Nicolas Cage’s daughter in 2022 film “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”

"She's off and running,” Beckinsale told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. “Yeah, it's quite scary.”

Did she have any advice for Lily, the co-hosts asked? “I said, 'Be a doctor' and then this came."

While Lily was at New York University, Beckinsale joked about sniffing her underwear to cope with missing her.

“Just know I'm going to be going through your underwear drawer, just huffing everything while you're gone,” she announced on Good Morning America in 2019. “I won't be going out, I won't have a life, I'm just going to be smelling your underpants and your socks."

Beckinsale marked her daughter’s 22nd birthday in January, posting a black-and-white snapshot of herself holding Lily as a baby. "Happy birthday @lily_sheen the best person ever invented," she wrote on Instagram. "Lucky lucky me.”

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kate Beckinsale, Lily Mo Sheen reunite after pandemic separation