Audrey Hepburn Thought She Had Found Her Future
Audrey Hepburn fell hard for William Holden while they were filming Sabrina. There was one obvious problem: Holden was already married. But when their secret romance grew serious enough for them to imagine a future together, he revealed that he couldn’t have children with her. That confession ended everything they had been planning.
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Sabrina Brought Them Together
Hepburn and Holden met while making Billy Wilder's Sabrina, which began production before Roman Holiday had even turned Hepburn into an Oscar-winning star. Hepburn played a chauffeur's daughter caught between two wealthy brothers, played by Holden and Humphrey Bogart. On screen, her character initially falls for Holden's charming David Larrabee. Off screen, Hepburn was becoming attached to Holden himself.
Holden Was Already A Major Star
Holden was 11 years older than Hepburn and far more established in Hollywood. He had already appeared in Sunset Boulevard and won acclaim for another Wilder film, Stalag 17. By the time he made Sabrina, he was one of Hollywood's most recognizable leading men. Hepburn was still adjusting to the attention surrounding her sudden rise.
He Was Also Married
There was another difference between them that mattered much more. Holden had been married to actress Brenda Marshall since 1941. They had built a family together, even as Holden developed a reputation for relationships outside the marriage. Hepburn therefore entered a romance that was complicated from the beginning.
The Sabrina Set Wasn't Exactly Peaceful
The atmosphere around Sabrina was already difficult. Bogart had not been Wilder's first choice to play Linus, and TCM records serious friction between the actor and director during production. Bogart also resented Wilder's closeness with Holden and affection for Hepburn. Amid that tension, Holden and Hepburn grew increasingly close.
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Holden Became Her Ally
Holden reportedly became protective of Hepburn when tensions flared on set. The friendship between the two stars soon developed into something much more personal. Their chemistry was not confined to the scenes they were shooting together. A real affair had begun behind the cameras.
Their Romance Became Serious
This was not simply a fleeting attraction between two movie stars. Vanity Fair reports that Holden and Hepburn became deeply involved and even discussed marriage. Holden was apparently prepared to leave his wife. Hepburn was therefore beginning to imagine that their relationship might continue long after filming ended.
Hepburn Wanted A Family
For Hepburn, marriage came with another hope. She wanted children and dreamed of building a family of her own. Biography reports that she told Holden she wanted to start that family with him. That conversation forced Holden to reveal something he apparently had not told her before.
Holden Had A Confession To Make
Holden told Hepburn that he had undergone a vasectomy years earlier. The news meant that the future Hepburn had been imagining with him could not look the way she wanted it to. Biography identifies that revelation as the crucial problem in their relationship. Suddenly, the idea of marriage no longer carried the same promise for Hepburn.
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She Walked Away From Marriage
Vanity Fair reports that Hepburn rejected the idea of marrying Holden after learning about the vasectomy. However strong their feelings had become, having children mattered enormously to her. The revelation therefore changed the relationship at its most serious point. Their imagined future together effectively disappeared.
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Their Romance Didn't Become The Ending
The affair ultimately did not turn into the marriage they had discussed. Hepburn and Holden moved into very different chapters of their lives after Sabrina. That made their real story strikingly different from the romantic fantasy unfolding on screen. Audiences would soon fall for the movie without knowing what had happened between its stars.
Sabrina Became A Hit
Released in 1954, Sabrina became another major success for Hepburn. Her performance earned her a second Academy Award nomination, following the extraordinary reception for Roman Holiday. The movie also strengthened the elegant, sophisticated screen image that would become inseparable from Hepburn. Her career was accelerating even as her relationship with Holden was ending.
They Both Won Oscars The Same Night
Their paths crossed in another remarkable way that year. At the 1954 Academy Awards, Hepburn won Best Actress for Roman Holiday, while Holden won Best Actor for Stalag 17. The two former lovers were suddenly standing among Hollywood's most celebrated performers. It was an extraordinary moment in two careers that had briefly become entwined.
Mel Ferrer Was Already In Her Life
Holden was not the only man with whom Hepburn had developed a serious connection. She already knew actor Mel Ferrer, and her relationship with him deepened after the Holden affair. Vanity Fair notes that Hepburn resumed her relationship with Ferrer after abandoning the idea of marrying Holden. The course of her personal life was changing quickly.
Broadway Added Another Triumph
Hepburn was succeeding almost everywhere she went. In 1954, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine. The production also starred Ferrer, further bringing their personal and professional lives together. Hepburn was now established as a major star on both stage and screen.
Audrey And Mel Married That Year
Hepburn and Ferrer married on September 25, 1954, in Bürgenstock, Switzerland. The private wedding came during one of the busiest and most successful years of Hepburn's career. Only a relatively short time earlier, she had been contemplating an entirely different future with Holden. Now she was building a life with Ferrer instead.
Motherhood Eventually Became Part Of Her Life
Hepburn's desire to have children proved to be much more than a passing wish. She and Ferrer eventually welcomed their son Sean in 1960. Hepburn later had a second son, Luca, with her second husband, Andrea Dotti. The family life she had once hoped to build with Holden eventually took shape elsewhere.
Holden Never Completely Let Go
Holden's feelings for Hepburn appear to have lasted much longer than their affair. TCM reports that she continued receiving occasional telephone calls and bouquets of flowers from him even after marrying Ferrer. Years passed, but Hepburn had clearly remained important to him. Eventually, Hollywood put the former lovers together again.
Paramount Tried To Recreate The Magic
Nearly a decade after Sabrina, Paramount reunited Hepburn and Holden for Paris When It Sizzles. The studio hoped their pairing could reproduce some of the success of their earlier movie. This time, they played a screenwriter and his assistant who gradually fall for each other. Behind the scenes, however, the situation was much less romantic.
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Hepburn Had Moved On
Hepburn was now married to Ferrer and was a mother. Her career had also expanded far beyond the young actress Holden first met during Sabrina. Films including Funny Face and Breakfast at Tiffany's had made her one of the most recognizable stars in the world. Their old romance belonged firmly to her past.
Trailer screenshot, Wikimedia Commons
Holden Still Carried Feelings For Her
TCM describes Holden as carrying an unrequited torch for Hepburn when they reunited. He later recalled arriving in Paris knowing that he would have to face both Hepburn and his own drinking problem. His words suggest that the reunion carried enormous emotional weight for him. What had once been a mutual romance had become something very different.
His Drinking Became A Serious Problem
Holden's alcohol use caused major difficulties during production. Director Richard Quine became so concerned that he began watching the actor closely and eventually persuaded him to undergo a one-week treatment. TCM describes Holden's drinking during the film as particularly severe. The polished romantic comedy being created on screen concealed a far more troubled situation off camera.
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The Production Struggled
Holden's problems were only part of the difficulty surrounding Paris When It Sizzles. The production faced creative issues, and additional performers were brought in for appearances as filmmakers tried to strengthen the movie. Holden even returned from one weekend with an injured arm after crashing a Ferrari. What was supposed to recapture Sabrina's magic became an unusually complicated production.
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Their Second Film Couldn't Match Sabrina
Paris When It Sizzles finally reached theaters in 1964. Critics were largely unimpressed and audiences did not respond to the Hepburn-Holden pairing the way Paramount had hoped. The chemistry that once seemed so effortless belonged to another period in both of their lives. There would be no third movie together.
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Their Lives Kept Moving Apart
Hepburn and Ferrer's marriage ended in 1968, and she married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti the following year. Holden and Brenda Marshall divorced in 1971. Hepburn eventually spent many of her later years with Dutch actor Robert Wolders. The future she once imagined with Holden remained one of many paths her life might have taken.
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Sabrina Preserved What Real Life Couldn't
Movies have a strange way of freezing people at a particular moment. In Sabrina, Hepburn and Holden remain young, glamorous, and caught inside a romantic triangle that always unfolds the same way. Viewers at the time had no idea that a second love story had been taking place behind the cameras. Their real relationship ended, but the chemistry that helped start it is still there every time the film plays.
The Secret Behind The Hollywood Romance
Hepburn and Holden's relationship had nearly everything expected from an Old Hollywood love story. There was a secret affair, two enormous stars, and serious talk about a life together. Yet Hepburn's determination to have children collided with a truth Holden could not change. One deeply personal revelation was enough to send their lives in completely different directions.
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