EXCLUSIVE: Audrey Hepburn's VERY Private Final Days Revealed On What Would Have Been Hollywood Icon's 96th Birthday
Audrey Hepburn shunned the limelight before her passing.
May 14 2025, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
Audrey Hepburn may have had Breakfast at Tiffany's, but she spent the happiest years of her life in a rural French-speaking village in the land of chocolate, mountains and banks... Switzerland, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
She bought the retreat she called La Paisible which means "peaceful" in French in 1963 and the cozy estate that sat behind a wall on a busy street in Tolochenaz remained Hepburn's place of quiet, reflection and simple pleasures until the day she died aged 63 in 1993.
We can reveal how she loved spending time at the retreat on what would have been the icon's 96th birthday, which she toasted on May 4.
Hepburn found joy in gardening and walking at La Paisible, her peaceful Swiss sanctuary.
Her second son, Luca Dotti, whose father is Audrey's second husband, Andrea Dotti, says his mom felt more at home in Switzerland than anywhere else.
"She liked walking a lot and she liked to know her neighbors in Hollywood, that is sometimes hard," said Luca.
"My mother didn't have a driving license, and she loved dogs, so she was a very good walker."
La Paisible boasts 12 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a swimming pool and 40 acres of park-like grounds packed with centuries-old trees and gardens bristling with apple trees.
Her other Sean remembers how his mom "would pick fruit and make jams," which Audrey would donate to the Salvation Army International.
Sean Ferrer, left, and Luca Dotti cherished their mother's quiet Swiss life filled with gardens, fruit picking and love.
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In 2001, La Paisible was put up for sale for $21million. Katharina Beaujolin, who bought the 18th-century farmhouse from Sean and Luca, said the roses Audrey planted on her 60th birthday in 1989 sent to her by her good friend, designer Hubert de Givenchy are still blooming.
Givenchy flew Audrey and her then-partner Robert Wolders from L.A., where the star was getting cancer treatments, to Tolochenaz in 1993 so she could enjoy her last season at La Paisible before she passed away. "In Switzerland, we have hard winters," Luca said.
He added: "One of the things my mother loved most was her garden blooming after a long winter."
