My mother was much more than the black and white photo on your wall: the rare confidences of Sean, Audrey Hepburns son

Who was hiding behind the public image of Audrey Hepburn? The fashion and cinema icon, who died on January 20, 1993, is revealed in a biography written by her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer.

A life dedicated to protecting his mother’s image

Born in 1960 from her marriage to her first husband, Mel Ferrer, Sean Ferrer grew up far from Hollywood before embarking on a career in film and then retiring when his mother passed away. He dedicates himself to protecting her image: “My mother died on January 20, 1993 at 8 p.m.; that’s who I loved. And she left something behind. People leave behind shoe stores, restaurants, hotels, or large companies, and they take care of them,” he explains in an article in Tatler magazine. Sean Hepburn Ferrer continues to manage this image through licenses and distributions to charitable works via the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.

But this omnipresence in the public space is not always easy to live with: “It’s a bit strange, I have to tell you, because you see her everywhere. Everyone has bought that black and white photo from Ikea. You see enlargements on every street corner.” So iconic that Sean Hepburn would sometimes play a game with his children when traveling: “Three minutes to find Granny,” the time it took them to come across a photo of Audrey Hepburn.

In Tatler, he explains that his mother would have hated being this icon on paper: “She would run away, go upstairs, turn off the light, slip under the sheets, and cover her head. She wouldn’t understand. She would say, ‘Oh my God, it’s impossible!'”