Were Audrey Hepburn & Katharine Hepburn Related? The Truth About The Hollywood Icons

Audrey Hepburn is an Old Hollywood icon because of her beauty, charm, and her humanitarianism. While her relationship history and family life are public knowledge, there are also untold truths about her, and some people wonder if a family relation to fellow Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn — also renowned for her beauty, grace, and talent — is one of them.

In May 1907, Katharine Hepburn was born to a doctor father and suffragette mother in Hartford, Connecticut. She grew up in the New England state and attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1928, Katharine Hepburn established her acting career in Baltimore before appearing on the big screen in the 1930s. Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium to a Dutch baroness mother and a British father in May 1929. Her dad changed their last name from Ruston to Hepburn-Ruston because he believed one of his ancestors was a Scottish earl with the last name Hepburn. After World War II, Audrey Hepburn was a professional dancer in London before switching to acting.

Despite sharing a last name, the actresses were not related. The two never got the chance to work with each other, even though some of Audrey Hepburn's co-stars were American, and some of Katharine Hepburn's co-stars were European.

Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn had things in common despite not being related. Each actress won multiple BAFTA and Academy Awards, and their love lives were unconventional and controversial. Both actresses were involved in extramarital affairs and didn't marry their last partners before their deaths.

After divorcing her husband, Ludlow Ogden Smith, Katharine Hepburn entered into one of Old Hollywood's most scandalous affairs. In 1941, she met fellow American actor Spencer Tracy on set for "Woman of the Year." The two fell in love as Tracy wasn't satisfied with his marriage, which he never tried to dissolve due to his Catholic background. Despite Tracy's struggle with alcoholism and his hypercritical nature, he and Katharine Hepburn stayed together until he died of a heart attack in June 1967. The actress reportedly remained single until her death in 2003.

Adultery contributed to both of Audrey Hepburn's divorces. Although her first husband, Mel Ferrer, and second husband, Andrea Dotti, cheated on her, the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" actress didn't stick to her vows either. She met her final life partner, Robert Wolders, at a party while she was married to Dotti in 1980. Audrey Hepburn and Wolders, who was 11 years her junior, never married but stayed together until her death from cancer in 1993. Their love was so strong that she even called the Dutch actor her husband. In an interview with People, Wolders said, "We were ready for each other... If chance would have had it that we would have met at an earlier stage, we might not have had the discoveries together that we did have." Despite her history with cheating, Audrey Hepburn managed to have one of the most successful age gap relationships with Robert Wolders.