LONDON: Screen icon Audrey Hepburn's son Luca Dotti has revealed that the legendary actor never thought she was beautiful and battled insecurities throughout her life.
In an interview with Daily Telegraph, Luca, whom Hepburn had with her second husband, Andrea Dotti, said the actor's mother always made fun of her, calling her the "ugly duckling".
''I look at photographs, and it's something I try to answer. I don't know. it's something. She never thought she was beautiful. She didn't have the uniform beauty of her time. Her own mother made fun of her, calling her the ugly duckling.
"My grandmother always joked that my mother was this tall, slim, thing without curves - never a sexy beast.
And my mother kept that insecurity: the thought that maybe tomorrow would change and she'd be ugly again.
'When I look back, I see she was very elegant. My mother had an innate charm whether in official photos, or captured by the paparazzi. That is something you cannot buy," Luca said.
The 48-year-old graphic designer said Hepburn was a ''sincere person'', who was not interested in the fame she had received.
"For a long time, I had difficulty bringing the two parts together - the real Audrey and the fantasy - but, now, I thank you; all of you.
You perceived her for what she was and not as someone else.
''This wasn't a Kardashian-type celebrity. She was a sincere person - you got what you could see. In many of her movies, she's not really acting - she is herself - with the exception of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's because Holly was a different type of girl.''
Luca said his mother, who also had son Sean Hepburn Ferrer with actor Mel Ferrer, always wanted to have a family.
''By the time she had me and my brother she was in her 30s - and 30 years older by experience. She'd had the war, her career, lived all over the world. She wanted a home, a garden, dogs, children. She'd played her part. Her attitude was, 'I did enough, and now I want to enjoy my family'.
Her dream was to be a mother, which she'd wanted all her life," he said.