‘The Audrey Hepburn only we knew’
Her sons open up about their mum’s simple life away from the spotlight
She was a Hollywood legend, an icon of elegance and grace, with hundreds of awards and box office hits under her – very chic! – belt, but in 1967 at the height of her fame, Audrey Hepburn walked away from the limelight to focus on another role – motherhood.
In fact, her sons Sean Hepburn Ferrer, 61, and Luca Dotti, 51, didn’t find out their mother was once one of the highest paid actresses in the world until years later. To them, they reveal, she was just Mum.
“When I had to go to school and could no longer travel to be with her on the set, she gave up her career. She felt the most valuable thing was family,” Sean tells US Closer magazine.
As it happens, he only discovered his mother’s glittering history when he stumbled upon a treasure trove of Tinseltown memorabilia.
A CHANCE DISCOVERY
“I was back home in Switzerland. My mother kept all her awards, costumes and photographs in the attic,” says Sean, Audrey’s eldest child, who she had with first husband Mel Ferrer. “That’s how I first discovered her films.”
His brother agrees Oscar winner Audrey was always more “Mum” than “movie star”. “My mother was very present – picking me up at school, worrying about education, things like that,” says Luca, Audrey’s son with her second husband Andrea Dotti.
In fact, he says he also found out about his mother’s fame by chance when
he saw her movie Love In The Afternoon as a child. “Suddenly, there was my mother kissing Gary Cooper. I remember perfectly because I was so embarrassed and I ran to my father and said, ‘Dad, this is serious. You should be upset. Mummy is kissing another man.’ So that explains how much I was aware that my mother could possibly be a movie star! I had no idea.” Far away from the hubbub of Hollywood, Audrey’s sons say she settled into an idyllic life at the family’s Swiss farmhouse in a village near Lausanne, where the star spent the last 30 years of her life. “I think she was very happy at home with her dogs and her cooking,” Sean reveals. “Her secret to happiness was simple and unpretentious. She had a beautiful house, would pick fruit and make jams, run the dogs in the fields, have a whiskey at 5 o’clock and cook a great plate of pasta. It wasn’t complicated. Maybe she just understood early what life really was all about.”
Luca also looks back fondly at the downtime he shared with the Breakfast At Tiffany’s star.
“She loved having conversations as she walked,” he reveals of Audrey, who also cherished time in her garden. “The joy of things blooming after a strong winter – in Switzerland we have hard winters – that was something she liked to share with us a lot,” he says.
‘The greatest gift she gave us was a normal upbringing’
Both sons say they’re grateful for the simple childhood Audrey created for them.
“I think that’s the greatest gift she gave us, this normal upbringing without her fame hanging over our heads. It actually prepared us for the world,” says Sean, who admits he only truly realised how well-loved his mother was by the rest of the world when she died in January 1993 at the age of 63 from a rare cancer of the appendix.
“We needed a rock concert-style parking lot for her funeral in a little village of 600 people!” Sean recalls.
As the lift doors to the children’s cancer ward at Melbourne’s Monash Hospital opened, doctors and nurses were greeted by the sight of a smiling young boy dancing around inside.
“It’s party in the elevator time,” Noah Dennaoui chimed as his mum filmed on her phone, a grin also across her face.
Later on, the pair uploaded the fun clip to Tiktok, where the adorable eight-yearold has won a fanbase of followers.
But behind their smiles is the harrowing reason why Noah has been posting on social media – for the past
18 months he’s been in the fight of his life.
SHOCK DIAGNOSIS
In November 2019, Noah was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a rare type of the blood cancer, non-hodgkin lymphoma.
It was a diagnosis that stunned the Dennaoui family, who
live in south-east Melbourne. Mum Samantha, 35, dad Samih, 36, Noah and his brother Benji, six, had just returned home from a holiday, when the eldest sibling discovered a pea-sized, painless lump on his collarbone.
“I didn’t think it was anything sinister at first,” Samantha tells Woman’s Day.
Even so, Samantha – who describes Noah as funny, creative and with a wisdom beyond his years – took him to the GP for a check-up. Returning home with the reassurance it was just an enlarged lymph node, Noah was as bubbly and bright as ever, but the mysterious lump continued to grow.
Over the coming months, visits back and forth to the GP led to specialist and hospital referrals as well as further investigations including blood tests, scans, ultrasounds, a biopsy. But nothing prepared the family for the grim diagnosis to come.
‘Every time one of my boys cuddle me, I hug them a bit tighter’
“The paediatric oncologist told us Noah had a mass in his lung, and the lump in his collarbone was a cancerous tumour,” says Samantha.
“We were in denial. We couldn’t comprehend how our little boy, who was so cheeky and healthy, had cancer.”
Admitted to hospital, Noah deteriorated before their eyes – he became feverish and incoherent. “Terror kicked in then,” she admits. “We were told Noah would die within days if he didn’t start aggressive treatment immediately.”
A CT scan revealed Noah had stage 4 blood cancer and it had spread from his lungs to his sternum, legs, arms and face.
TOUGH FIGHT
From that night, he underwent many rounds of chemotherapy, receiving excruciating treatment for six days followed by 21 days at home to rest. But the severity of the chemo – which caused
Noah to lose all his hair and his weight to plummet – meant he spent more time confined to a hospital bed fighting infections than snuggled up on the couch at home playing his beloved computer games.
Yet through all the tears, pain and anguish, Noah always managed a smile. To keep his spirits up, he began documenting his gruelling journey in a series of video snippets posted to Tiktok. Filmed by Samantha, they showcased Noah’s hospital adventures and how the little boy was determined to remain upbeat.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster,” says Samantha. “So when his clips caught the attention of kids and their families going through similar experiences, he made it his mission to inspire them to stay strong and positive, too.”
Throughout his treatment Noah became a source of hope for all and in July, when he was declared in remission, the milestone was celebrated in style – with a ride in a limousine and a new state-of-the-art gaming system!
While Noah still needs regular check-ups, and there is a chance he could relapse, for now he is enjoying life as a normal child. And of course, he is still producing his Tiktok videos, and is overjoyed to officially reach celebrity status by appearing in Woman’s Day!
As for Samantha, she couldn’t be more proud of her son.
“Things like this change your outlook on life,” Samantha, a photographer, says. “Life is so precious. Every time one of my boys cuddle me, I hug them a little bit tighter – it’s the simple pleasures I cherish and Noah is my little miracle.”