Though she made a few screen appearances in the Seventies and Eighties, the last of her major films was Wait Until Dark, which was made when Sean was seven. "I suppose people could blame me for ending Audrey Hepburn's career. She knew her potential. If she had kept working, the parts were there for her, and her success professionally would have continued at a high level for years. But she wanted to be with her family. She wanted a private life. And she couldn't bear the thought that she might fail as a mother. It was too important to her."

Audrey Hepburn in mid 1950's. Photographer Unknown.  

According to Sean, the whole idea of childhood was sacred to her - largely due to her own tragic experience during the war. Born in Belgium to a British banker and a Dutch baroness, she was brought up in Arnhem by her mother after her parents divorced when she was very young. After Germany invaded Holland, she and her mother were trapped, and were forced to live under Nazi rule. "That experience shaped her whole life. It made her appreciate the freedoms that most people take for granted, and it made her oppose any form of extreme government. It also turned her against Germany. She wouldn't have anything German in the house. "On the other hand, she was grateful to the people who liberated her. She never forgot the chocolates and the outstretched hands - the little acts of kindness to children like herself. Later in life, those memories inspired her to work for Unicef. She wanted to give something back to the world." When Sean was born, his mother was at the height of her career. It was 1960 and she was a Hollywood veteran whose leading men had included Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Gregory Peck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed that there was nothing she couldn't do - from dancing with Fred Astaire in Funny Face to singing Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's. "She was brave and would try anything. But she was never very confident. She didn't even think she was particularly beautiful - which turned out to be a good thing because it made her act like a real person instead of a sex symbol. If she looks natural on screen, that's just the way she was in life - very unassuming and full of life." She gave her son a Continental upbringing, making their home in Switzerland and providing him with an Italian and French education. Though he has lived in America for many years, he still speaks English with a foreign accent. "My mother loved Switzerland and wanted me to grow up there. After what she had been through as a child, she wanted to make certain that we had a home in a safe place. She used to say that she chose it because we would never see a war there." When school friends visited him at home, they were often taken aback to find Audrey working in the kitchen with an apron on and her hair up. She wanted to be regarded as an ordinary mother, not a star. "She always surprised people when they saw her working in the kitchen. There was absolutely nothing pretentious about her and that showed when she was preparing a meal because her tastes were so simple. She loved a good plate of pasta with tomato sauce, and her big treat was to go to hotels and order a club sandwich from room service. That made her day."

 

 

 

Audrey Hepburn, Circa 1953.Photo credit: John Engstead /mptv.net.

In public, she could easily disguise herself and go anywhere. Under a scarf and big glasses, she was hard to recognise. But when she wanted to play Audrey Hepburn the star, she could stop everything around her. "When she came into a room, all eyes were on her. She could be silly and frivolous, but she had a strong sense of personal boundaries, and people just knew not to take advantage of her graciousness. I never saw anyone misbehave in her presence. It just wasn't done." But not everything went well at home. In 1968, she divorced Mel Ferrer - who is now 84 and living in retirement in Santa Barbara. A year later, she married Andrea Dotti, hoping to live quietly as a doctor's wife, but that marriage also failed. In the meantime, Sean tried to follow in his parents' footsteps, going to America and seeking a career in Hollywood. He met with only modest success, finding occasional work as an assistant director and associate producer. He is still hoping to produce a big film one day, and holds an option on an epic Australian story by novelist Tim Winton. But for now, he has his hands full looking after his mother's estate. "That's fine with me. I like what I'm doing, especially my work for the Fund. It was charming when I was 30 to be an aspiring filmmaker. But it's not so charming when you're in your forties, and it will be downright ridiculous when I'm 50. So if nothing happens to change things before then, I'll throw in the towel."

Audrey Hepburn in 1954 Switzerland. Photographer unknown.

I have the sense that his mother's death left him rudderless. They were so close that he can't seem to get back on track without her. He married and divorced, and married again. Then Hepburn's last illness took him by surprise and left painfully vivid memories. "She was working in Somalia, caring for children during the war there, and the experience was devastating for her. The violence, the hunger, the terrible scenes of children dying. I remember her calling and telling me that she felt as though she had gone to hell and back. Then she fell ill and we thought it was only some stomach virus that she had picked up over there. But it was cancer. The pain was so bad she could barely stand." She was rushed to California for tests and an operation was hastily arranged when the cancer was found to be spreading through her abdomen. It was too late, however. The doctors found that her cancer was inoperable. "I went to her room to tell her the bad news. I'll never forget her response. She just looked out of the window and said: 'How disappointing'. And that was that. We took her back to Switzerland and she died a few weeks later." There was enough time for Audrey to say her farewells to her ex-husbands and various friends, including her last companion, Robert Wolders, who was with her to the end. Sean is grateful for the quiet time that he had with his mother in her last days, but he can't help feeling that a gaping hole was left in his life, and that she was denied something she richly deserved. What was that? I ask. Without hesitation, he replies: "A gentle old age."

Audrey Hepburn, Circa 1961, Breakfast at Tiffany's production still. Photo: Paramount Pictures.