'Intimate Audrey' comes from someone who knew Hepburn best
The lithe and lovely Audrey Hepburn consumed one piece of chocolate every afternoon, a lifelong "bittersweet" habit she formed at the end of World War II.
After suffering severe deprivation and malnutrition endured as a child in heavily bombarded Arnhem, Netherlands, an Allied soldier gifted her bars of chocolate. You can only imagine the impact that gesture had on the 15-year-old girl who had subsisted on "a watery broth of flour and tulip bulbs." Kindness and gratitude became pillars of her character.
In the recently published book about his famous mother, "Intimate Audrey," Sean Hepburn Ferrer and co-writer Wendy Holden, trace her life from those dire years through the trajectory to her Oscar at age 24, her starring roles in 16 films, and as the tireless UNICEF goodwill ambassador for underprivileged children worldwide - her last and perhaps greatest role. Untold personal stories intermixed with exclusive photos delve deeply into the life of this extraordinary woman.
Sean shares that Audrey had "a truly gentle heart; she just wanted to love and be loved. The best-kept secret about Audrey Hepburn is that, alongside the sweetness of her, there was a great deal of sadness."
She was only 6 years old when her father abandoned her and her mother, a deep scar that never healed. The loves of her life, her sons Sean and Luca Dotti, and her final partner, Robby Wolders, saved her from heartbreak after the despair of several miscarriages and two divorces.
It is difficult to believe that the luminous, ethereal star, who gave millions of her devoted fans so much joy, could ever have been burdened by self-doubt and deep insecurities, but she was. She was her own worst critic (although her mother's constant criticism didn't help).
"It is because of a strange mix of strength and vulnerability," Sean remarks, "that she was so beloved in her films and life."
This definitive biography discloses the innumerable times that her inner strength and intelligence triumphed over her perceived flaws. When the song "Moon River" was to be cut from the film "‘Breakfast at Tiffany's," Audrey, in an uncharacteristic outburst of rage, pronounced, "Over my dead body." Henry Mancini's song survived the cut.
"With her beauty and elegance she became a timeless beacon of style," says Sean. "Never she -- or I -- imagined how ubiquitous her image would become on everything from T-shirts to artwork, coffee mugs to style features in magazines."
In 1978, while I was waiting to interview Hubert Givenchy in his atelier in Paris for a documentary on fashion I was creating, Audrey suddenly appeared. In shock and awe, I blurted out "I loved you in ‘Two for the Road.'" She smiled that glorious smile of hers but said nothing as she moved to another room, where I suspect she and Givenchy conferred over her clothes, as that magical professional marriage had done for years, this time for the film "Bloodline."
The next day I was invited to the restaurant Maxim's, where a scene from the film was being shot. Besides her exceptional acting, I noticed that she naturally bonded with the director and crew who obviously adored her. She was no prima donna.
In 1973, I had interviewed Oscar-winning costume designer Edith Head. She told me that Audrey "enjoys designing clothes for the ‘little Audreys' that our staff used to give her to work on." Those "little Audreys" were maquettes dressed in the exact clothes that Audrey would wear for her films.
I "played" with those dolls in 2002 during a magical day spent with Sean's godson, Pierluigi Orunescu, in his home town of Morges, Switzerland. We visited their private foundation, an homage to Audrey's multiple artistic talents: sketches and paintings of children and flowers; drawings of clothing she designed; innumerable posters of her films, and her personality annotated film scripts; shelves stacked with archival material and a doll dressed in the stunning white gown she wore in "My Fair Lady" that stood on Audrey's green canvas director's chair.
Pierluigi and I then drove to the nearby village of Tolochenaz, where Audrey had lived at her beloved La Paisible for 30 years, and to a nearby cemetery where she was buried at age 63.
Paying my respects at her graveside, in a small cemetery overlooking verdant fields near her home, I was struck by its lovingly cared for simplicity. Under the "pretty little cherry tree" that Sean describes, lies a simple white stone cross, roses that she coveted, and at the foot of Audrey's grave, a graceful stone angel, bent in prayer. In her last film, "Always," directed by Stephen Spielberg, she played an angel, a most fitting swan song.
As "Intimate Audrey" thoughtfully expresses, her lasting influence will not be only through her films but in her compassionate love for and campaign for the thousands, perhaps millions of children whose desperate need for aid she championed.
Towards the end of her life, suffering from a rare cancer, Audrey said to her son, "Oh, I have had the most marvelous life, Seanie."
Her beautiful spirit shines throughout this marvelous book, through bitterness and sweetness.
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