Audrey Hepburn’s son reveals secret campaign of cruelty against her

Audrey Hepburn had more fame, glamour and adoration than she could ever have hoped for as a little girl, starving and terrified under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

But the iconic star of films including Roman Holiday – for which she won a Best Actress Oscar – My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany’s would have given it all up in a heartbeat for her deepest desire: that of a large family and ‘oodles of children.’

Which makes a revelation in the latest, ‘final word’ biography of the beloved actress, written by her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, all the more upsetting.

In his book, Intimate Audrey, Ferrer recalls his mother’s heartbreak over her repeated, unexplained miscarriages.

Her first took place six months into her marriage to fellow actor and director Mel Ferrer, 12 years her senior.

‘It was March 1955, and she was 25 years old,’ writes Ferrer Jr. ‘Dad’s solution was to distract her with work and not give her too much time to dwell on her heartbreaking loss.’

Four years later, while filming The Unforgiven alongside Burt Lancaster, she was overjoyed to discover she was pregnant again.

‘The one thing I dreamed of in my own life was to have children of my own,’ she said at the time.

The star would have given up all her fame for her deepest desire: that of a large family and ‘oodles of children’

Her first miscarriage took place six months into her marriage to fellow actor and director Mel Ferrer, 12 years her senior

Hepburn and Mel Ferrer with their toddler son Sean, born in July 1960

However, her joy was to be short-lived and she lost her child a full six months into the pregnancy.

‘She was informed that the baby was a little girl, who should have been my older sister,’ writes Ferrer.

‘My mother had planned to call her Maria… so it really felt as if she’d lost a person, not just a fetus, and she carried that pain for the rest of her life.

‘The first miscarriage had been tough enough and a tragedy but had come early in the pregnancy. This second was not just another tragedy but caused her to fear that she’d never be able to have a child at all.’

Happily, just a few months later, she found she was pregnant again – and this time she carried the baby to term, giving birth to Sean on July 17, 1960.

She had never been happier.

As Hepburn settled into life as a new mom, she was also determined that their son would not create further tension in her increasingly fractious marriage, so she ‘insisted that she’d pay for everything I needed throughout my life, including my education, and that I’d never be a financial burden on my father,’ writes Ferrer.

‘She kept her word.’

To her watching fans and the world’s press, everything looked picture perfect between the Hollywood power couple: Mel Ferrer had finally given his beautiful bride the one thing she wanted most in the world.

‘What few people knew,’ writes their son, ‘was that he secretly didn’t want another child in the first place. Not only did he have four children already [to two previous wives], but he had big plans for my mother’s acting career – in tandem with his.

‘Taking time off to have babies wasn’t part of the plan.’

Ferrer goes on to describe a set of actions, which he says Hepburn believed were subconscious, to ‘prevent her from keeping the infants she was carrying.’

He writes: ‘Every time she became pregnant, my father would find a reason for them to move, travel or do something energetic.

‘It almost became a joke as she’d quip to friends that as soon as any pregnancy test showed a positive result, he’d ask her, ‘Can you help me with this box of books?’

‘They all thought she was kidding, but she wasn’t.’

Because of her history of miscarriage, he explains: ‘The last thing she needed was to be lifting anything, traveling too much or moving house. Instead, she was meant to have complete bed rest, especially in the final trimester, so as not to go into labor prematurely.’

The iconic actress won an Oscar for her breakout role in Roman Holiday

To fans and the world’s press, Mel Ferrer had finally given his beautiful bride the one thing she wanted most in the world

When Sean was born, it was the realization of a long-held dream of motherhood for Hepburn

Hepburn and Ferrer’s volatile union limped on. But, says the younger Ferrer, the breaking point came when she realized their son was also suffering from their constant arguing.

‘The day my mother found me tiptoeing past my father’s room and speaking in whispers to avoid one of his outbursts was the day she knew that she’d let things go on for too long,’ he writes.

‘It mortified her to think that I was afraid of my own father. I truly believe that this was the moment she decided – if only in her heart – to leave him.’

The pair attempted an unofficial separation in the early-1960s, but, during a brief reunion, she became pregnant again.

‘She prayed it might mean hope for a brighter future for them both,’ writes their son, ‘but a month later, at the end of 1965, she miscarried again, this time due to an ectopic pregnancy.’

Ferrer claims his father couldn’t even spare the time to comfort his grief-stricken wife, and scheduled himself in for minor hemorrhoid surgery instead.

‘He went ahead with the operation even though my mother felt somewhat abandoned by him in her grief. The ‘oodles of children’ she’d longed for since childhood still felt like an impossible dream, and her spirits sank.’

The couple began divorce proceedings in 1966, although they didn’t make the announcement public until the following year.

‘My mother confided in friends that she had spent ‘two years in hell… the worst of my life.”

However, until her own death in 1993, she maintained that her husband’s thoughtlessness through her pregnancies had been no more than that – inconsiderate, but not sinister.

Her son writes: ‘Her theory about all this, she explained to me quite pragmatically later in life, was that his children, although much loved, had been a source of marital anguish for him, especially when he divorced.’

It was while on an Aegean cruise with friends – ‘with her hair newly shorn in defiance of my father’s desire for her to keep it long’ – that she met and fell in love with her second husband, a handsome young Italian psychiatrist called Andrea Dotti.

She gave birth to their child, Luca, in February 1970. But unfortunately the union was plagued by Dotti’s cheating.

The pain, says her son, became so great that Hepburn even took an overdose of sleeping tablets in despair.

The maid found her in bed, an empty bottle of sleeping pills by her side, and a 17-year-old Ferrer watched in horror as his lifeless mom was carried to hospital to have her stomach pumped. 

‘When she returned home from the hospital the following day, she was pale and exhausted, but I was the first person she sought,’ he writes in the book. 

‘Sitting me down quietly, she said, ‘I know what this looks like, Sean, but please try to understand. I was in so much pain that I desperately wanted to knock myself out. I overdid it with the Mogadon, that’s all.

‘I’ve been hurting too much and needed it to stop. I’m so dreadfully sorry. I never meant to take my life.’ The way she said it, I believed her.’

Hepburn had at least two miscarriages before she was able to carry her first son to term

Hepburn fell in love with her second husband, Andrea Dotti, while on an Aegean cruise

Sean Ferrer (right) and Luca Dotti – Hepburn’s two sons. Ferrer has written what he hopes will be the ‘last word’ on his mother’s life

Later in life, Hepburn committed her time and energies to humanitarian work with UNICEF

Against all odds, Hepburn became pregnant again by Dotti – at the age of 45.

‘It was, I think, a desperate and slightly insane final attempt to create the family she’d always hoped for, even though she was married to a philanderer,’ writes Ferrer.

‘Sadly, she lost the baby early on. Her distress at not being able to have another child chipped another little corner from her heart.’

The couple stayed together for the sake of the boys, but eventually divorced in 1982.

In the subsequent years, as Hepburn began to withdraw from her acting career, she channeled her love of children into her humanitarian work as an ambᴀssador for UNICEF, which she considered the most important role of her life.

She continued in the role until her death in 1993. 

 

Intimate Audrey by Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Wendy Holden is published by Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group