‘The best-kept secret about Audrey Hepburn is that she was so sad’

The Guardian ^ | Nosheen Iqbal

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Audrey, a documentary by 26-year-old British film-maker Helena Coan, comes from the producers of the Bafta-nominated McQueen, about the life of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and is packed with revelations about one of the most enduring of all Hollywood’s stars.

Throughout her career, Hepburn came to be seen as the epitome of elegance and grace. Born into European nobility in 1929 but devastated by the impact of the second world war as a child in the Netherlands, Hepburn kept a tight lid on her personal problems until her death in 1993 from cancer.

Coan, who spent three years researching her subject and edited the film through the spring lockdown, told the Observer she was stunned by the contrast between Hepburn’s image and the truth of her darker days. “She’s seen as this paragon of perfection and beauty, but the film was about showing the person underneath that. She suffered massively with insecurities about her looks and with men, and to hear her link them to her relationship with her father and her deep abandonment issues, to hear those intimate details was so strange. It was such a twist for someone who had always been so private,” said Coan.

The impact two difficult marriages had on her is a key section of the film…

The film shows how Hepburn tried to find her father 25 years after she had lost contact with him…Hepburn eventually located him through the Red Cross…the experience was cold and left her bitter and hurt.

Still, throughout her life, she was acutely aware of the power of her celebrity and the platform it gave her, be it in influencing fashion or during her humanitarian work. The latter, said Coan, was where Hepburn’s passion later in life offered a reprieve from the hurt she felt for so long.

[telescope115]

Elegance personified….

[bray]

Being beautiful does not save you from sadness. She was one of the greatest and most gorgeous actresses ever. HollyWierd was a meatgrinder for women who worked the casting couch and abortions to get on screen.

[telescope115]

I have to agree. I think Streep winning the Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer, which Streep was barely in, was a travesty. I’ve never liked her.

[Mean Daddy]

I forget which one but Thomas Sowell has a book about how black families were comparable to white ones up until the early 1960’s and Johnson’s Great Society.

[Liz]

Her wedding dress has become one of the most well-known celebrity bridal looks. Here's everything to know about Audrey Hepburn's wedding dress. Hepburn's wedding dress was designed by Pierre Balmain.

Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer walk arm in arm on their wedding day 1954. Pierre Balmain, who launched his fashion house in 1945, designed the tea-length frock that Hepburn wore for her first trip down the aisle. The now-iconic dress featured a flared skirt, puff sleeves, a high collar and a satin sash fashioned into an oversized bow in the back.

Despite turning to a couture designer for her wedding look, it’s possible that Hepburn’s dress was not a custom design. Sean Ferrer told Vanity Fair that “knowing how quickly” his parent’s wedding was put together, the actress’s dress “was probably something off the rack.” He added, “She was kind of quick to make decisions.”

Hepburn’s bridal accessories were a mix of traditional and modern. While she paired her puff-sleeve dress with elegant elbow-length gloves, a popular accessory at the time, she decided to forego the tradition of wearing a veil and instead donned a flower crown. The actress also chose not to have a bouquet, carrying a missal down the aisle instead. This was a common accessory for religious brides at the time, as Grace Kelly also carried one for her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III.

[Rodd OB]

I agree. She was my favorite actress.

[PghBaldy]

She also does this false modesty act when she is lauded by her peers.At a recent Oscars I think. One good thing she did was move her family out of Hollywood for the kids’ sake.She went to CT which is loony too but a bit less perverse than Hollywood.

[fastrock]

she aided in the Dutch underground during WW2

[Albion Wilde]

One of the most beautiful women ever.

[Albion Wilde]

His ideas about altruism are bizarrely anti-Christian.

[Lizavetta]

My former German nanny lived through WWII and suffers to this day from the malnutrition as a child - bad teeth, bad hair.

[jmacusa]

True. Thousands of Dutch people endured the same fate.

It's the reason Hepburn was always so thin and frail. She was denied the substance any young and growing child would near to grow healthy. F'ing Krauts, they started the whole mess and Montgomery, that Limey twit, he sure as heck didn't do the Dutch people any favors.

[wardaddy]

I doubt it comes to a great shock to anyone here

But I ADORED her

A woman my rib and I agree on enthusiastically