EXCLUSIVE: The Audrey Hepburn You Never Knew — By Her Sons… Including Star's Battle to Have 'Both Career and Family'
Audrey Hepburn's sons opened up about life with their mother in Switzerland.
April 7 2025, Published 7:15 p.m. ET
Audrey Hepburn may have found massive success in Hollywood, but the Breakfast at Tiffany's star spent her happiest years in a rural, French-speaking village in Switzerland.
Hepburn's adult sons, Sean and Luca, have opened up about life with their famous mother and how she struggled to have "both a career and a family," RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Hepburn confessed she realized after she had children that she 'couldn't really do both career and family.;
The actress bought her Swiss retreat – which she dubbed La Paislble, meaning "the peaceful place" in French – in 1963.
Her estate sat behind a wall on a busy street in Tolochenaz and remained Hepburn's place of rest and relaxation until her death in 1993.
Hepburn explained she desired to live a life out of the spotlight when she "started having children, and that was so terribly important to me."
She added: "I couldn't really do both career and family."
Hepburn purchased La Paislble in Switzerland in 1963.
Her oldest son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer – who she shared with first husband Mel Ferrer – recalled his mother sacrificing her lucrative career to be with him as he got older.
Sean said: "When I had to go to school and could no longer travel to be with her on set, she gave up her career and became a full-time mom. I went to school with the children of the village."
Hepburn's second son, Luca Dotti – who she shared with second husband Andrea Dotti – said his mother felt more at home in Switzerland than in the US.
Her son Luca recalled her enjoying being able to stroll around the village, which was 'sometimes hard' to do in Hollywood.
Luca explained: "She liked walking a lot and she liked to know her neighbors – in Hollywood, that is sometimes hard.
"My mother didn't have a driving license, and she loved dogs, so she was a very good walker."
While Hepburn settled in nicely to a slower-paced living in Switzerland, her 18th-century estate was anything but humble.
Hepburn 'would pick fruit and make jams' from the estate's fruit trees and donate the products to the Salvation Army.
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La Paislble featured 12 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a swimming pool and 40 acres of lush grounds complete with apple trees.
Sean said his mother would explore the grounds and "would pick fruit and make jams," which Hepburn would then donate to the Salvation Army International.
In 2001, La Paislble was listed for sale for an astonishing $21million.
Katharina Beaujolin purchased the villa from Sean and Luca.
Beaujolin noted the roses Hepburn planted for her 60th birthday in 1989 – which we sent to her by dear friend and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy – were still thriving.
Luca said: "In Switzerland, we have hard winters. One of the things my mother loved most was her garden blooming after a long winter."
Givenchy also flew Hepburn and her then-partner, Robert Wolders, from Los Angeles to Tolochenaz in 1993 so the star, who was undergoing cancer treatments at the time, could enjoy her little slice of heaven one more time before her death.
