We’ve all seen the photo. It’s on dorm room posters, coffee mugs, and Pinterest boards across the globe. Audrey Hepburn, draped in a Givenchy dress, peering over her shoulder with that impossibly long, elegant cigarette holder. It is the definition of "old Hollywood glamour." But here’s the thing: while Audrey Hepburn smoking a cigarette on screen looked like a choreographed dance, her real-life relationship with tobacco was anything but a movie set prop. It was a lifelong, heavy, and often grueling habit that started in the middle of a world war.
Honestly, it’s kinda jarring when you look at the numbers. Most people think of Audrey as the "elfin" beauty who lived on air and elegance. In reality, she was often smoking up to three packs a day. That’s 60 cigarettes. Every single day. If you’re wondering how someone so seemingly fragile kept that up for decades, you have to look at where it all began: the Dutch Resistance and the hunger winter of 1944.
The Liberation Origin Story
It sounds like a dark movie script. On April 16, 1945, a teenage Audrey was in the village of Velp when Allied soldiers finally arrived to liberate them from Nazi occupation. After years of starvation—she literally ate tulip bulbs to survive—the first thing she smelled wasn't fresh bread. It was tobacco.
One of the soldiers handed her a cigarette. It was her first one. She coughed, she choked, and her lungs burned, but in her mind, that smell became forever linked to the feeling of freedom. It wasn't about looking cool for a camera. It was about the moment the war ended.
By the time she reached Hollywood, the habit was locked in.
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Gold Flakes and Kents: What She Actually Smoked
If you’re a fan of the "Breakfast at Tiffany’s" aesthetic, you probably associate her with the long, slim holder. But in her private life? Audrey was much more utilitarian about her nicotine.
- Early Years: She was a fan of English-cut Gold Flake cigarettes.
- The Go-To: Later in life, she mostly stuck to Kents.
- The Ritual: She reportedly loved pairing a cigarette with two fingers of J&B Rare Blended Scotch, served neat.
There’s a famous story from the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's where the party scene took six days to film. Because the director, Blake Edwards, wanted "realism," the air was thick with smoke. They used 60 cartons of cigarettes during that shoot. Think about that. Not 60 packs. 60 cartons.
The Physical Toll Nobody Talks About
We love to romanticize the image of Audrey Hepburn smoking a cigarette, but her family saw the other side of it. Her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra, was actually terrified of her daughter’s consumption. She once gave Audrey a beautiful cigarette case with a plea: "Please, only smoke six a day."
Audrey couldn't do it.
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The three-pack-a-day habit was likely a coping mechanism for deep-seated anxiety and the PTSD she carried from her childhood in occupied Holland. Experts and biographers, including her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, have noted that she often used smoking as a way to manage her appetite. Because her metabolism was permanently altered by wartime starvation, she found it hard to eat large meals. Smoking filled the gaps.
The Health Realities
It’s a tough conversation, but we have to be honest about the end. Audrey died in 1993 at the age of 63. The official cause was appendiceal cancer, an extremely rare form of the disease. While there isn't a direct, 1:1 link proven between that specific rare cancer and smoking in every case, her heavy tobacco use certainly didn't help her overall health. By the time doctors found the cancer, it had already spread through her abdomen.
Why the Image Persists
So, why do we still buy the posters?
Basically, it's because Audrey Hepburn possessed a rare "visual intelligence." She knew how to use a cigarette holder as an extension of her arm. It added height, it added a "line" to her silhouette, and it gave her something to do with her hands during long takes. In Funny Face, she uses smoke to create a literal atmosphere.
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But if you look closely at candid photos—the ones taken behind the scenes by photographers like Richard Avedon—you see a different woman. You see the stress. You see a woman who is sparking a fresh Kent the second the director yells "Cut!"
What We Can Learn from Audrey's Habit
If you're looking at those vintage photos and feeling the urge to romanticize the era, it's worth remembering that Audrey herself didn't see it as a "style choice." It was a dependency.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Context Matters: Understand that her smoking was tied to wartime trauma, not just fashion.
- Separate Style from Habit: You can admire the Givenchy dress and the oversized sunglasses without adopting the 60-cigarette-a-day routine.
- Modern Perspective: We now know that the "waif" look Audrey championed was often maintained through high stress and heavy smoking—something that isn't sustainable or healthy for anyone trying to emulate her today.
Audrey Hepburn remains an icon of humanitarian work and cinematic grace. Her work with UNICEF in her later years arguably defines her legacy more than any movie role. But the image of Audrey Hepburn smoking a cigarette serves as a reminder that even the most "perfect" icons were human, complicated, and often struggling with the ghosts of their past.
If you're researching the life of Audrey Hepburn, focus on her later humanitarian work in Somalia and Ethiopia. That's where her true strength—beyond the smoke and mirrors of Hollywood—really shines through.
Next Steps for Fans: To see the "real" Audrey, look for the 1993 documentary Audrey Hepburn: In Her Own Words. It moves past the Holly Golightly caricature and shows the woman who survived a war and spent her final days fighting for children's rights.