Sean Hepburn Ferrer never felt like the son of a movie star while growing up, but his mother was Audrey Hepburn—one of Hollywood's most enduring icons. In a new biography, Intimate Audrey, Sean offers a behind-the-scenes look at the woman behind the glamour, focusing on family dinners over ballgowns.
"She realized that life is short and fickle and delicate—and you can't want a family and then when it comes not put your elbow into it," Sean says of his mother's priorities.
Despite her fame from classics like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey ensured Sean had a "normal childhood" in Switzerland and Rome. It wasn't until he was 14 that he fully grasped her stardom, hosting a private film festival in the attic with her 16mm copies. Audrey would occasionally check in, modestly crediting any praise to her directors or co-stars.
Her 1993 funeral near their home revealed the scale of her global appeal. "Our little village of 400 or 500 inhabitants swelled up to 25,000," Sean recalls. "It was like a rock concert."
Since then, Sean has dedicated himself to preserving her legacy through the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund and carefully managing her image. "Audrey Hepburn is like that Ferrari that requires you to take a weekend driving course before we let you have it," he explains. "Because otherwise, you're going to crash it, if you don't understand how it works."
He breaks down her lasting fame into three pillars: the naturalness of her performances, her iconic style—especially her collaboration with designer Hubert de Givenchy—and her humanitarian work as a UNICEF ambassador in the 1980s and '90s. "She gave her life for the dream of an inclusive society," Sean says.
Intimate Audrey, co-written with former war correspondent Wendy Holden, frames each chapter with screenplay-style scenes, reflecting Sean's own attempt to capture his mother's life on film. He notes that Audrey herself found her life "terribly boring" and refused to write a memoir, but the book underscores how her experiences were bookended by war, from her early years to her final UNICEF mission in Somalia.
Today, Sean continues to balance legacy preservation with family life, having married his third wife, Karin, in 2014. Together, they've co-authored a children's book, Little Audrey's Daydream, while Sean's eldest daughter, Emma, follows in her grandmother's footsteps as a UNICEF spokesperson. Through it all, Sean's mission remains clear: to share the intimate story of the woman he knew, far from the Hollywood spotlight.