Audrey Hepburn Off-Duty: 7 Photos of the Legendary Actress at Home

"Hepburn and her mother moved to London in December 1948 so that the 19-year-old could study ballet at Rambert Dance Company. They settled in a small apartment in Mayfair, where Hepburn's mother got a gig as an apartment manager. With Hepburn's rising success and the financial security that followed, they eventually upgraded to a larger unit within the complex."

""I don't think either of us could have done it without the other. We kept one another going," Hepburn later recounted to Diana Maychick, author of the 1993 book Audrey Hepburn: An Intimate Portrait."

"Before becoming one of Hollywood's most iconic stars, Audrey Hepburn was training to become a ballerina. She was born in Belgium in 1929 to the Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra and Joseph Ruston, a member of the British Union of Fascists who was largely absent from Hepburn's life; he left for good in 1935."

Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium in 1929 to a Dutch baroness and an absent British father. During World War II, she trained in ballet in the Netherlands and performed in secret recitals for the Dutch Resistance. After the war, malnourished and without family wealth, Hepburn and her mother relocated to London in December 1948. The 19-year-old pursued ballet studies at Rambert Dance Company while her mother worked as an apartment manager. They initially lived in a small Mayfair apartment, later upgrading to a larger unit as Hepburn's career progressed. Through modeling and auditions, she transitioned to acting, beginning with a chorus role in High Button Shoes before achieving her breakthrough in 1951.

Read at Architectural Digest