Audrey Hepburn's Vague Will Led Her Sons Into An Inheritance Battle That Took Decades To Resolve

One of the defining actors of her day, Audrey Hepburn was gifted immortal fame thanks to her iconic roles in films like "Roman Holiday," which won her the Academy Award for best actress, and "Breakfast of Tiffany's," which marked the fourth of her five total nominations for that particular honor. Not bad, especially considering Hepburn's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" role almost went to another huge movie star. However, while it's true that the actor's legacy has endured well beyond the cinematic era she helped to define, that legacy also sadly includes a long history of legal disputes involving her two children — and it all goes back to how the legendary star worded her will. 

Hepburn had two sons. Her firstborn was Sean Hepburn Ferrer, whom she shared with first husband Mel Ferrer. Her younger son, meanwhile, is Luca Dotti, whom she shared with second husband Andrea Dotti. At the time of her passing, in 1993, at the age of 63, the Oscar winner had an extensive collection of memorabilia from her storied Hollywood career, with Hepburn's will dictating that said items were to be distributed evenly between her two boys. In other words, a 50-50 split. 

Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Well, the problem is that she didn't specify who should receive what. This omission resulted in a years-long dispute between the two half-brothers. Unable to come to an agreement, Ferrer and Dotti eventually took the matter to court in 2015, more than 20 years after their mother's death. They finally settled things in 2017 by agreeing to mediation, thus preventing a proper trial. But this wasn't the only instance of Hepburn's sons on opposite sides of a legal battle.

The very same year they finally resolved their decades long-dispute over their late mother's belongings, Audrey Hepburn's two adult sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti, found themselves embroiled in an entirely different fight regarding the legal aspects of her legacy. This time around, it had to do with the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, a charity Ferrer and Dotti founded in 1994 as a way of honoring their mother's amazing life. It all started in February 2017, when the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund filed a lawsuit against Ferrer, who had left the charity in 2012, leaving Dotti to take his place as chairman. In its filing, the charity alleged that Ferrer had effectively been putting roadblocks in front of its planned fundraising exhibitions featuring the "Roman Holiday" star's memorabilia, including by demanding compensation for the use of his mother's likeness.

Ferrer countersued the following October, accusing the charity of illegally using Hepburn's intellectual property. While this particular dispute wasn't a personal one between her two sons, Ferrer's lawyer did confirm to Reuters at the time that Dotti had declined to join his older half-brother as a plaintiff in the case owing to their own disagreements regarding the matter at hand. Of course, the previous 50-50 agreement stipulated in their mother's will apparently complicated things further. In October 2019, a California judge ultimately sided with Ferrer. Per NBC4 Los Angeles, the judge declared in his proposed ruling that since Ferrer and Dotti owned Hepburn's right of publicity in equal parts, both brothers had to give permission for an organization like the charity they co-founded to use her name and likeness. Plus, either party could revoke this permission at any time.