Audrey Hepburn’s Never-Before-Seen Private Letters Go Up for Auction

A collection of never-before-seen letters written by Audrey Hepburn will soon go up for auction in London.

The collection includes letters that a Hepburn wrote to her acting coach and mentor, Sir Felix Aylmer, between 1951 and 1960, when she was in her 20s. The letters offer a rare, intimate glimpse of Hepburn’s personal ups and downs as she skyrocketed to stardom in films including Roman Holiday (1953), Sabrina (1954), as well as her Tony-winning performance in Ondine on Broadway in 1954.

“Would you believe it I’m in Monte Carlo working on the French and English version of a French Picture…this place is heavenly the best thing that’s happened to me,” Hepburn wrote from the set of one of her earliest movies, Monte Carlo Baby, in 1951.

She also shared the joys and sorrows of her personal life, including her split with British businessman James Hanson in 1952.

“It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to tell you James Hanson and I are no longer engaged,” she wrote. “I know there is little I need explain to you, a gentleman of this profession. For a year I thought it possible to make our combined lives and careers work out…It is all very unhappy making but I am sure it is the only sensible dicision [sic].”

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In 1960, she wrote a happier letter to her longtime mentor about the birth of her son with her husband, actor Mel Ferrer.

“Dearest Felix,…Sean is truly a dream and I find it hard to believe he is really ours to keep. I long to show him to you. We all three send our love…kisses Audrey.”

Hepburn’s letters will go up for auction at Bonhams in London on June 29. The collection is expected to fetch between about $4,400 and $5,900.