Audrey Hepburn had starring roles in classics Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday – but she turned down a major 1950s role due to personal trauma from the Second World War.
Hepburn was 10 when the war broke out in 1939, and lived in the Netherlands throughout the conflict. In Wendy Holden’s 2026 biography Intimate Audrey, the actor’s son Sean Hepburn-Ferrer claimed that Hepburn almost died of starvation during this time and was left terrified by people suddenly disappearing from her life, including her uncle Otto, who was shot in retaliation for an act of sabotage by the resistance movement.
