Audrey Hepburn's later happiness: What the Hollywood princess was looking for in all her men

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She is ranked third among the best actresses in Hollywood. Her style and manners are still a role model, and an incredible look, it seems, and today penetrates from the screen into the very heart of every viewer. Audrey Hepburn was one of the most famous and successful actresses of the 20th century. And at the same time, she often felt deeply unhappy. She desperately tried to find something very important in each of her men, but it wasn't until she turned 50 that Audrey Hepburn finally found what she was looking for.

The girl who dreamed of becoming a princess

Since childhood, she imagined herself as a princess, as in a book that she had. Little Audrey's mother, Kathleen Ruston, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, said that this book was sent to the birth of the girl by the Queen of the Netherlands, who was a distant relative of them. As a child, Audrey was very fond of drawing and the drawings were often attended by persons of royal blood, to which she considered herself.

Parents supported Adriana (as she was called in the family) in her dreams and raised her like a real princess. Mom asked her daughter to make a promise not to become as fat as herself, because princesses are never like that, and her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Hepburn-Ruston, kept emphasizing: the girl needs to give up her favorite chocolate so as not to get better.

Audrey loved her father very much, so his departure was a real tragedy for her. Then she was only six years old, but all her life she believed that the most traumatic event in her life was the absence of her dad in her life.

Even the war had less of an impact on the girl, although young Audrey had a hard time. At first, her parents actively supported the Nazis, later her mother changed her beliefs, but her father was arrested during the war for fascist activities. The mother's family suffered greatly during the occupation, and during the blockade of Arnhem, where they lived, the family ate cookies made from flour made from tulip bulbs, which caused Audrey to develop acute anemia, breathing problems and swelling due to malnutrition.

After the war, Audrey began to study ballet in Amsterdam, where she moved with her mother and two brothers. In 1948 she moved to London, where she worked as a model and continued to study ballet. Then she decided to keep the surname Hepburn, excluding the "Ruston" part from it. When the head of the ballet Marie Rambert told Audrey that she would never become prima due to her weak physique and tall stature, the girl decided to devote herself to the profession of an actress.

The first love

At first, Audrey starred in episodic roles, and later William Wylett invited her to play the role of Princess Anne in the movie "Roman Holiday". Then she responded with consent to the offer of James Hanson to become his wife. But the wedding was not destined to take place. The engagement was soon announced to be terminated.

She was never passionately in love with her fiancé. It's just that at some point he seemed to her the very prince from the fairy tale. But then popularity hit her like an avalanche and Audrey found it dishonest to her groom to force him to stay in her shadow while she enjoyed her work and the attention of her fans.

On the set of Sabrina, she met William Holden, whom she fell in love with with all her fervor. It seems that she found in him what she subconsciously looked for in all her men: a kind, caring father who can protect a little girl from all problems.

They could sit side by side for hours and just look at each other, enjoying the extraordinary closeness of souls. Sometimes they went out of town, William started the record and Audrey danced with inspiration for him alone. True, Holden was married, and two sons were growing up in his family, whom he loved very much.

Audrey Hepburn also dreamed of children and even promised her lover to give birth to many babies. But William suddenly informed her that he would never have children again, as he deliberately performed an operation on himself. This actress, who dreamed of becoming a mother, could not bear. She broke off their relationship at one point.

Unsuccessful marriage

After Audrey met with theatrical producer Michael Butler, but she married in 1954 to the actor Mel Ferrer. They met a year before the wedding at a party, and Mel completely fascinated Audrey. He did not say beautiful words, did not throw fur coats at her feet, did not shower with jewelry. Ferrer somehow immediately took it upon himself to solve all of Audrey's problems.

He found a play for her, became an entrepreneur himself, and surrounded his beloved with such attention and care that she had not experienced for a long time. True, her mother convinced Audrey that Mel is one of those who do not particularly appreciate family life and, having been married three times already, is unlikely to be limited to the fourth for the rest of his life.

The actress didn't want to listen to anything. He picturesquely described their marriage, the presence of children in it, and he could also bring her coffee in the morning to bed and wrap it in a warm blanket when she fell asleep. He looked as much like her dad as she remembered him.

Audrey Hepburn got married, but the reality was not at all what she had imagined. And not at all like Mel's stories. His career was not particularly developing, and the title of husband of a celebrity Ferrer did not suit. Very quickly, he took control of his wife's whole life: he spoke on the phone instead of her, decided with whom to communicate with her, with whom to act, and on what stages to perform.

Audrey didn't seem to notice. She had more important concerns: she could not give birth to a child. Her two pregnancies ended in miscarriages. By the time she still managed to become a mother, Audrey had already become disillusioned with her wife. But before parting with him, there were still seven years and two more unsuccessful pregnancies.

The reason for the separation was Ferrer's betrayal, but the spouses formalized the divorce a little later, when a new love appeared in Hepburn's life.

Classics of the genre

Audrey met the psychiatrist Andrea Dotti during a Mediterranean cruise with friends in June 1968. He helped her understand herself and survive the separation from her husband. For a long time, the actress was afraid to admit even the thought of an official divorce, as she remembered how acutely she was worried about the divorce of her parents.

At first, their relationship resembled just the communication of a psychotherapist with his client, but later Hepburn was convinced: she found in Andre a real friend, a caring man and, possibly, the father of her future children.

When she married Andrea, she was ready to give up work and devote herself to her family. But, as it turned out later, her husband, who was 10 years younger than his beloved, did not share her opinion. After the birth of their son Luca, Audrey became like a real Italian wife. She learned to run a household, selflessly cleaned the house and raised children.

But Dotty wanted to remain the husband of a star of the first magnitude. Gradually, he became disillusioned with Audrey and started an affair on the side. He again turned out to be not like the caring father that Audrey was looking for in all her men. The couple divorced in 1982, but over the past few years, their marriage has been just a formality.

Later happiness

Audrey Hepburn considers her last love and true happiness to be Robert Walder, with whom she was close from 1980 until her death in 1993. After nine years of relationship, the actress called all the time spent next to Robert the happiest in her life.

She seems to have met what she was looking for for so long when she was already 50 years old. She was happy and considered Walder her common-law husband. He never tried to get any dividends from a relationship with a celebrity. He just loved and enjoyed every minute spent next to Audrey. She found in him everything that she had been unsuccessfully looking for throughout her life: immeasurable love, disinterested friendship and fatherly warmth and care. Next to him, she finally felt like a weak, fragile woman again.

Unfortunately, only 13 years of happiness were meted out to them. In 1993, Audrey Hepburn died of stomach cancer.

In the memory of most fans, she will forever remain a thin, big-eyed and very young girl from the films "Roman Holiday", "Funny Face" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Over the years, the beauty and charm of Audrey Hepburn not only did not fade, but also blossomed in magnificent color, fueled by life experience and incessant inner work, as it happens with truly harmonious and purposeful individuals.