Audrey Hepburn kept her love life private despite Hollywood fame, biographer says

Audrey Hepburn was famously open about her work and humanitarian efforts, but the actress kept her romantic life remarkably private, according to those who knew and studied her.

Speaking to People for this week's cover story, biographer Pamela Keogh said discretion was particularly important to Hepburn when it came to her personal relationships.

"Audrey's big thing was discretion," Keogh said. "Unlike some Hollywood stars, boy, you didn't know who she was seeing and what she was doing." She pointed to Hepburn's passionate relationship with her Sabrina costar William Holden as an example, saying that "nobody really knew" about the romance at the time.

Hepburn married actor and director Mel Ferrer in 1954, and the couple welcomed their son Sean in June 1960. Keogh said Ferrer was initially a strong partner for Hepburn, particularly as he understood Hollywood and supported her career. But their dynamic changed as Hepburn's fame grew and she became one of the world's biggest movie stars.

"Mel was the star and Audrey was the shadow," Keogh explained. "And then Audrey just blew up and went into the stratosphere. She became a true Hollywood star and then he became sort of Mr. Audrey Hepburn."

After divorcing Ferrer in 1968, Hepburn married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969. They welcomed their son Luca in February 1970. Keogh described the relationship as one that developed quickly, saying Hepburn gave her husbands considerable leeway despite rumours of infidelity.

Hepburn's determination to preserve her marriages was partly connected to her childhood. According to Keogh, Hepburn's parents' divorce had shaped her desire to create the stable family life she had wanted for herself.

"In each case, really, she hung in probably longer than she should have," Keogh said. "Because of her parents' divorce, her dream in life really was not to be in Hollywood — it was to have a home and a family and children, a safe, calm family life."

Hepburn eventually found what appeared to be the most peaceful relationship of her life with Dutch actor Robert Wolders. The pair began their relationship in the early 1980s and remained together until Hepburn's death in 1993.

Keogh said Wolders' ego did not compete with Hepburn's fame and that his priority was making her happy. Hepburn's son Luca similarly described Wolders as the partner who was best able to love and support his mother without being overshadowed by her celebrity.

"My mother was very much in love with both her husbands, and Robert Wolders at the end," Luca told People. "Certainly by Robert Wolders, she was, because maybe he was the only one or the one who suffered less from her stardom figure."

Although Hepburn and Wolders never officially married, Luca said their life together functioned as a marriage in everything that mattered.

"In essence, they were married," he said. "Marriage is everyday life."