American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), on a country road outside Paris, 1956. (Photo by Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
In 1952, Audrey Hepburn called off her engagement to James Hanson, saying “When I get married, I want to be really married.”
Actress Audrey Hepburn (1929 – 1993) at the El Morocco in New York with her fiance, British industrialist James Hanson, 1st December 1951. The two never in fact married. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
She would marry.
It was at a 1953 party hosted by Gregory Peck, Hepburn met American actor Mel Ferrer. As he said:
“We began talking about theatre; she knew all about the La Jolla Playhouse Summer Theatre, where Greg Peck and I had been co-producing plays. She also said she’d seen me three times in the movie Lili. Finally, she said she’d like to do a play with me, and she asked me to send her a likely play if I found one.”
Actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) with her husband, American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) and their three-day-old son Sean, Lucerne, Switzerland, 20th July 1960. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
He sent her the sent her the script for Jean Giraudoux’s play Ondine. She agreed to join the cast. Rehearsals started in January 1954. Eight months later, on 25 September 1954, they married in Bürgenstock while preparing to star together in the film War and Peace (1955).
They had a child, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, their son, whose godfather was the novelist A. J. Cronin, who resided near Hepburn in Lucerne, was born on 17 July 1960.
Love would not last. They divorced on 5 December 1968.
American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), on a country road outside Paris, 1956. (Photo by Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), on a country road outside Paris, 1956. (Photo by Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), on a country road outside Paris, 1956. (Photo by Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 – 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), on a country road outside Paris, 1956. (Photo by Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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