I believe in pink. I believe laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happiest girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is a better day and I believe in miracles. ” One of many famous quotes taken from the Belgian-born actress admired for her absolute charm and elegance, Audrey Hepburn. As a child, Audrey grew up in Arnhem, Netherlands during WWII where she witnessed Germans execute 2 of her relatives and ship one of her half brothers off to a labour camp.
Her parents divorced soon after the world war ended and Audrey moved with her mother to England where she was introduced to her new forte, ballet. But at a later stage she soon found that the anaemia and malnutrition that plagued her during the war had limited her ballet prospects. Luckily, her distinctive beauty allowed her to expand into modelling and acting. Hepburn’s first break was when she was chosen by the French writer, Colette, to play the lead role in the English version of her play Gigi on Broadway.
Audrey effortlessly charmed her way into the hearts of producers, directors, co-stars and fans which then earned her no less than drama’s high-profile honour. Her storybook princess IMAGE lasted 15 years in Hollywood, and throughout, consistently managed to keep up her appearance of sparkling charisma and class. In every movie Audrey appeared it in, she always seemed to manage it with absolute pedigree and natural skill, she was one of the few actresses whom men wanted to be with and women wanted to be.
In 1954 she married Mel Ferrer whom she had her first son with named Sean Ferrer, born in 1960. Soon after, Ferrer was rumoured to be canoodling with other women in Madrid while filming there. Audrey and Mel communicated via letters and when Audrey mentioned divorce in one of her letters, Ferrer immediately joined her in Paris to patch things up. The couple then bought a Swiss villa where he helped her with an issue that bothered Audrey for many years. Ferrer worked with the Red Cross to track down her father who she met for the first time again since she was a little girl in a Dublin hotel.
It was awkward at first when the father and daughter reconciled and her dad seemed distant from her affections, but Audrey still sent him money every month until he died. The marriage unfortunately soon ended in divorce. Later, in 1969, Audrey married an Italian psychiatrist with the name Andrea Dotti, she had her second son, Luca Dotti, born in 1970. The marriage also ended in divorce. Later in life, Audrey travelled around the world as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF where she was a high-profile spokeswoman.
UNICEF is the United Nations International Children’s Emergency fund which was established in 1946 to help governments improve the health and education of children and their mothers. Audrey Hepburn died on January 20, 1993 in Tolochnaz, Switzerland, from appendicular cancer. She had made a total of 31 high quality movies. Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history evidently by her being named in Empire magazine’s “ The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time. ”
