Audrey Hepburn, the Lovely Icon
Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s as for her charming smile, childlike innocence, classy and timeless style, feminine charm, delicate gestures and classic beauty. Her films made 60-70 years ago, such as Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady and Funny Face, are so great they belong to the ages.
Audrey Hepburn had an extraordinary life and career—we may devote a separate article to her life and film career, but you can learn more about a little-known part of her life in this article. In this article, we seek answers to the questions of why the Belgian-born actress—who had spent her formative years in the Netherlands and migrated to the US to pursue her acting career—established a home in Switzerland and called the country her second home, which she would also select as her final resting place.
Audrey Hepburn became a star overnight with her first leading role in Roman Vacation, and her performance as Princess Ann earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress, aged just 24. The success of the film changed her life: all the directors and costume designers in Hollywood wanted to work with her. She starred in numerous films, making one or two films a year. She was always hard-working and was a pleasure to work with during her career as an actress, but her biggest dream was to have a baby and not to win more and more awards. She gave birth to her son Sean in 1959, and, 11 years later, her second son Luca was born from her second marriage.
The birth of her first son did not prevent her from working, but she accepted noticeably fewer film roles. It was important to her to raise her child in a calm and peaceful home environment, away from the world of film and prying eyes. Since she spoke French due to her Belgian origin and family origins, she settled in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. She was a resident of Tolochenaz on the shores of Lake Genova, a village of just 1700 inhabitants, from 1963 until her death in 1993.
It was not her first visit to Switzerland, as one of the most elegant hotels in the Swiss Alps, the Bürgenstock Resort had been her home for more than a decade. It was the favourite resort of old Hollywood elite, Sophia Loren was also a long-stay guest at the resort, but it was up there where the James Bond crew also stayed to shoot Goldfinger in 1964.
Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland today (source: Bürgenstock Resort)
Audrey Hepburn at the Bürgenstock Resort in the 1950s
Audrey Hepburn liked it at the Bürgentock and in the Swiss Alps so much that she spent more and more time and even married Mel Ferrer there.
Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer’s wedding day in Bürgenstock, Switzerland in 1954
Her grave childhood experiences contributed greatly to her decision to move to Switzerland. She said in a 1971 Vogue interview that ‘During the Nazi occupation of Holland in the last war, I saw so much of it—families with little children, with babies, herded into meat wagons—trains of big wooden vans with just a little slat open at the top and all those faces peering out at you. And on the platform soldiers herding more Jewish families with their poor little bundles and small children, like my own children, tiny little Seans and Lucas. [...] I tell you, all the nightmares I’ve ever had are mingled with that. [...]People all have fears, but mostly they are distant and unknown to them. They are afraid of death which they haven’t gone through, they are afraid of getting cancer which they don’t have, they are afraid of getting run over which hasn’t happened. But I’ve known the cold clutch of human terror. I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it, I smelt it, I’ve heard it...’
She was only 10 years old when the Second World War erupted, and though she would survive the war, she was at the point of death several times. Since she vividly remembered the horrors of the war, her only goal was to create a calm and peaceful environment for her children, and Switzerland seemed like the right place for it. There is a reason the Swiss villa was named La Paisible, meaning ‘calm, quiet’ in French.
Audrey Hepburn with her younger son, Luca Dotti, in 1971
And indeed, as the name of the villa indicates, she found her haven of peace and enjoyed a life, with her family, out of public eye. However, she did not step back from acting and appeared in a few more films in the 1970s, but she made only four films after the birth of her second child.
The star would spend hours in the garden, working tirelessly alongside the landscaper, helping him tend to the roses. As the scent of her perfume—her signature scent Givenchy L’Interdit, which was created for her in 1957—mingled with the smoke from her Kent cigarettes, she talked with him about the garden chores and caring for the roses that grew there.
Audrey Hepburn among her beloved roses (source: Pinterest)
As the villa had a huge garden, she also planted fruit trees and loved to pick fruits herself.
Audrey Hepburn lived a quiet and peaceful life in a paradisaic environment in Switzerland, even though a crisis in her personal life cast a shadow over her happiness. She divorced from her second husband, but she lived in Switzerland and the Villa La Paisible until her death in 1993.