Audrey Hepburn never thought she was beautiful, says son Luca Dotti

Audrey Hepburn, who was known for her beauty and ‘influencing-fashion’, never thought she was beautiful enough and battled insecurities, her son, Luca Dotti revealed, providing an insight into his mother's life.

Surprising as this may sound, the screen beauty was made fun of by her own mother and bore an "ugly duckling" tag, Luca shared in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Luca is the actor's son from her second husband Andrea Dotti.

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"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.

Now, 48, Luca said Audrey never let fame overpower her and was a "sincere person".    
   
 "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.

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 "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.
       
Luca recalled, Audrey was a mother first and a celebrity second. Audrey, who also had a son with actor Mel Ferrer, always focused on having a real family and worked hard to have one. 
       
"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," Luca added.

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(With inputs from agencies)