How Audrey Hepburn Protected Her Kids from the Dark Side of Fame

Published: February 21, 2024

How Audrey Hepburn Protected Her Kids from the Dark Side of Fame

By Movieguide® Contributor

Though Audrey Hepburn is one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, her children never knew their mom was a star because she secluded them from the dangers of fame.

“She stopped making movies when my brother Sean was about five years old,” said Hepburn’s son, Luca Dotti. “She wanted to be present as he went to school. By the time I was born…she was already a full-time mom. And remember, there was no Instagram, Facebook or anything like that to show me that she was an icon. She was just my mother. I didn’t have that concept that she was an icon until her death.”

Hepburn’s humility allowed her to walk away from fame. Even after she became a highly successful actress, even winning an Oscar, she remained down to earth, not letting fame get to her head.

“Switzerland was where she could escape from the glamour of Hollywood,” Dotti said. “She was just a regular mom who took me to school and looked after me. I was very protected from that world of paparazzi and cameras. It was, to a certain extent, a world that was unfamiliar to me.”

“My mother didn’t have a double personality,” he continued. “There was never a moment when someone said, ‘She changed so much after winning an Oscar.’ No, she was still the same woman with hopes and dreams. And that has always been very reassuring for me… She wasn’t a lioness, but she was just as determined. She was able to jump into anything. My mother was both soft and sincere… And I think that’s a message Hollywood wanted to convey in its films.”

“Audrey’s superpower was her authenticity,” added Meghan Friedlander. “People were glued to that. She was the real deal. She was someone who chose to age gracefully. That’s something you don’t see a lot of today. But, ultimately, Audrey was just someone who was always herself. And even after she won her first Oscar, she never changed. She was a very resilient person, and she was also a very genuine person. She was someone who connected with other people.”

Now that he is much older, Dotti is reconnecting with the side of his mother that he never knew. He and Friedlander are writing a book about Hepburn’s impact on Paris and the fashion world.

“My mother didn’t act glamourous,” Dotti said. “So, I knew very little about the iconic part of my mother. She was just a regular mom to me… Perhaps this book is a way for me to ask for a little bit of forgiveness in not knowing that part of her life… I was very happy with the mother I knew. She wasn’t just the little black dress. But I wanted to reconnect with that other side of her, the one that also gave her joy.”

Following her exit from movies, Hepburn also helped with humanitarian efforts.

“Hepburn had narrated two radio programmes for UNICEF in the 1950s, re-telling children’s war stories. Having experienced the hardships of war firsthand, Audrey dedicated a significant portion of her life to helping those in need, maintaining a lasting partnership with the organisation. She was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 1989,” History Hit reported.

“I … saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling onto the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. Horrible. That image is too much for me,” Hepburn said of her decision to help UNICEF. “The ‘Third World’ is a term I don’t like very much, because we’re all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering.”