So we remember. Audrey Hepburn (17 photos)

Audrey Hepburn was a legendary actress whose image became a symbol of style and sophisticated femininity, inspiring women around the world. In addition to her acting talent and beauty, she was actively involved in charity work. She was also a loving mother of two sons.





Audrey was born on May 4, 1929, in a small Belgian town near Brussels. Despite her aristocratic roots (her father was the English banker John Victor Ruston, who later took the surname Hepburn, and her mother was the Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra), her childhood was difficult.

At the age of six, her parents divorced, and she remained with her mother, moving to the Netherlands. There, she experienced the military occupation, spending her school years in Arnhem. After the Nazis captured the country, Audrey temporarily changed her name to Edda van Heemstra, as an English name was considered dangerous.

However, the name change was not the worst loss: Audrey and her mother were starving. This took a toll on the actress's health: metabolic disorders, anemia, breathing problems, and depression plagued her throughout her life.

After the war, Hepburn entered the Arnhem Conservatory of Music – she had always been drawn to the arts. After completing her studies, she and her mother moved to Amsterdam, where they worked as nurses at a veterans' home. It was perhaps this experience that laid the foundation for her future humanitarian work.

Starting in 1946, while continuing to work, Audrey began taking ballet lessons with renowned teachers. She studied with great persistence, but her height and the effects of childhood malnutrition hindered her ballet career. At the time, her mother worked any job she could to support the family.

Realizing the need to earn money, Audrey decided to become an actress. Her film debut was the educational film "Dutch in Seven Lessons" (1948). Her first feature film role, "A Grain of Wild Oats," came in 1951. After several small roles, she landed her first significant role in "The Classified Men" in 1952.

She achieved stunning success in 1953 with the release of William Wyler's Roman Holiday, where she starred opposite Gregory Peck, matching the renowned master in every way. Hepburn won an Oscar for this role. She worked three more times with the director who discovered her talent: Sabrina (1954), The Children's Hour, and How to Steal a Million (1966).

She also starred in films by other renowned directors: War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956), The Nun's Story (Fred Zinnemann, 1959), and Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961). Her role as Holly Golightly became iconic, and her "little black dress" became a true fashion icon.

At the same time, Audrey excelled in musicals. In 1957, she starred opposite Fred Astaire in Funny Face, and she once again demonstrated her talent at the highest level. She played one of her best roles in George Cukor's 1964 film adaptation of the Broadway musical My Fair Lady.

Her beauty and talent attracted men. While filming Sabrina, she had an affair with actor William Holden, who was married. After learning that Holden was unable to have children due to a vasectomy, Audrey broke off the relationship, longing for a family of her own.

She met actor Mel Ferrer on the set of the play Ondine. Despite Ferrer already having a family, feelings blossomed between them. They married in 1954, and six years later their son, Sean, was born.

Audrey later admitted that the birth of her son brought her boundless happiness, especially after several miscarriages (in 1955, 1959, 1965, and 1967). With Sean's birth, family became her top priority, and she strove to find a balance between her career and motherhood, devoting all her free time to him.

Sean, whose name means "given by God," became the center of her world. Before his birth, she affectionately nicknamed her unborn son "Pooh" after A. M. Milne's character, and continued to call him this way throughout his life. Although it embarrassed Sean, he accepted it out of love for his mother.

Hepburn's active acting career continued until 1967, after which she took a long break. In 1968, her marriage to Ferrer also fell apart. The reasons for the divorce were not made public, and Audrey never spoke to her ex-husband again. She took the breakup hard, seeking help from psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, whom she later married and gave birth to her second son, Luke.

These years were difficult for Sean, who felt like an outsider in his new family. However, Audrey, who raised her children lovingly, managed to create a warm relationship between her brothers. Her marriage to Dotti, who had cheated on her, lasted 13 years and ended in 1982, her last official marriage. After this divorce, the brothers, estranged from their fathers, became even closer.

Hepburn returned to the screen in 1976 with the film "Robin and Marian." From then on, she played older roles and appeared infrequently. Her final film was Steven Spielberg's "Always" (1989).

After retiring from acting, Audrey Hepburn became a special ambassador for UNICEF. Her involvement with the organization began in 1954 with radio broadcasts. She dedicated the final years of her life to helping children in the poorest countries, traveling to more than 20 countries on missions. Her work included organizing humanitarian supplies, vaccinations, and providing clean water. Speaking several languages ​​(French, Dutch, English, Italian, and Spanish), she easily connected with people.

At 50, Audrey found love again. Her chosen one was the Dutchman Robert Wolders, with whom she lived in a happy, albeit informal, relationship until the end of her life (from 1980 to 1993), calling this period her happiest.

Her work for UNICEF was demanding. A trip to Somalia and Kenya in 1992 proved to be her last. There, she experienced severe abdominal pain. She was diagnosed with colon cancer. After surgery, the disease progressed rapidly, metastasizing. On January 20, 1993, surrounded by her family, the great actress passed away. She was 63.

Hepburn's sons, who absorbed her love, grew up to be successful adults. Sean Ferrer, who had no desire to become an actor (as confirmed by his only experience filming with his mother, They All Laughed), became a film producer and his mother's primary biographer, carefully preserving her legacy. He jokingly referred to himself as "Sean Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn's son."

Her youngest son, Luca Dotti, is a married designer.

In September 2017, Sean and Luca auctioned off their mother's personal belongings—a collection of clothes, accessories, film outfits, photographs, and annotated scripts. The brothers believed these items should find new owners who would appreciate them, not let them gather dust in boxes. The total proceeds were $6 million, and her screenplay for Breakfast at Tiffany's sold for a record-breaking £632,000. For Sean, this auction was a moment when he once again felt a spiritual closeness with the mother who always lived in his heart.







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WITH With her first husband and their son



With her second husband




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"Roman "Holidays"



With my second son



With my first husband





With sons