Sean Hepburn Ferrer has revealed the secret cruelty and miscarriages his mother Audrey Hepburn suffered during her marriage to actor Mel Ferrer. In his new biography titled Intimate Audrey, co-written with Wendy Holden, Ferrer recalls how his mother longed for a large family and "oodles of children." Hepburn suffered severe starvation and fear under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands as a child before finding Hollywood fame.
Hepburn won a Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday and starred in My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Despite her fame, glamour, and public adoration, she would have given up her acting career to have a large family. Her son described his new book, published by Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, as the final word on her life.
Hepburn suffered her first miscarriage in March 1955, six months into her marriage to actor and director Mel Ferrer, who was 12 years her senior. She was 25 years old at the time. Ferrer wrote, "Dad's solution was to distract her with work and not give her too much time to dwell on her heartbreaking loss."
Second Miscarriage and Birth of Sean Ferrer
Four years later in 1959, while filming The Unforgiven alongside Burt Lancaster, Hepburn 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. However, she suffered a second miscarriage six months into the pregnancy.
Doctors informed Hepburn that the unborn child was a girl, whom she had planned to name Maria. Ferrer wrote, "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." He added that while the first loss was an early tragedy, the second caused her to fear she would never be able to have children.
Hepburn became pregnant again a few months later and gave birth to Sean on July 17, 1960. As she settled into life as a new mother, she resolved that her son would not create tension in her fractious marriage. She insisted on paying for all of Sean's expenses and education so he would never be a financial burden on his father, keeping her word throughout her life.
Mel Ferrer Secret Actions During Pregnancies
To watching fans and the press, the Hollywood power couple seemed happy after Mel Ferrer gave his bride the child she wanted. However, Ferrer revealed his father secretly did not want another child because he already had four children from two previous wives. Mel Ferrer had major plans for his wife's acting career in tandem with his own, and taking time off for babies was not part of his plan.
Ferrer described a set of actions by his father, which Hepburn believed were subconscious, to prevent her from keeping her babies. Whenever Hepburn became pregnant, her husband found reasons for them to move house, travel, or do energetic activities. Hepburn would quip to friends that as soon as a pregnancy test showed positive, her husband would ask her, "Can you help me with this box of books?"
Friends thought Hepburn was joking, but her son stated she was telling the truth. Because of her history of miscarriages, Hepburn required complete bed rest in her final trimester rather than lifting heavy boxes, traveling, or moving house.
Marriage Breaking Point and Ectopic Pregnancy
The couple's volatile marriage reached a breaking point when Hepburn realized constant arguing was affecting her young son. The turning point came when Hepburn found Sean tiptoeing past his father's room and whispering to avoid one of his outbursts. Ferrer wrote that his mother was mortified that he feared his own father, prompting her to decide in her heart to leave him.
The couple attempted an unofficial separation in the early 1960s. During a brief reunion, Hepburn became pregnant again and prayed for a brighter future. However, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy at the end of 1965 and miscarried again.
Ferrer claimed his father did not comfort his grieving wife and instead scheduled himself for minor hemorrhoid surgery. Mel Ferrer proceeded with the operation while Hepburn felt abandoned, causing her spirits to sink as her dream of children felt impossible.
The couple began divorce proceedings in 1966 and announced their divorce publicly in 1967. Hepburn confided in friends that she had spent "two years in hell... the worst of my life." Later in life, Hepburn pragmatically maintained her husband's behavior was inconsiderate rather than sinister, explaining his children from prior marriages had caused him marital anguish during his previous divorce.
Second Marriage and Mogadon Overdose Incident
Hepburn met her second husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, while on an Aegean cruise with friends after cutting her hair short in defiance of Mel Ferrer's preference for long hair. She gave birth to their son, Luca Dotti, in February 1970. However, Dotti's frequent cheating caused Hepburn immense emotional distress.
The pain drove Hepburn to take an overdose of Mogadon sleeping tablets in despair. A maid found Hepburn in bed next to an empty bottle of sleeping pills, and 17-year-old Sean watched in horror as his mother was taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.
Hepburn returned home the next day pale and exhausted, seeking out Sean immediately. She sat him down and explained: "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." Sean believed her explanation.
Final Pregnancy and Humanitarian Work with UNICEF
At age 45, Hepburn became pregnant again by Dotti. Ferrer described it as a desperate final attempt to create the family she wanted despite marrying a philanderer. Sadly, she suffered an early miscarriage, which chipped another corner from her heart.
Hepburn and Dotti stayed together for the sake of their sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, before divorcing in 1982. As Hepburn withdrew from her acting career, she channeled her love of children into humanitarian work as an ambassador for UNICEF, which she considered the most important role of her life. She continued her UNICEF work until her death in 1993.
The book Intimate Audrey by Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Wendy Holden is published by Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
