Pasta & Ice Cream: Audrey Hepburn's Diet Was Pretty Normal

Throughout Audrey Hepburn's life, rumors about her slim figure ran rampant. There was plenty of chatter about the starlet's tiny 22-inch waist with many speculating it must have been the result of an eating disorder. However, her family is adamant that simply wasn't the case.

Although the actor, who was quite tall at 5' 7″, weighed just 110 pounds for most of her adult life, various members of Hepburn's inner circle have contradicted claims of dieting and the like. According to her youngest son, Luca Dotti, the Oscar winner actually found great joy in the kitchen and would cook for her family each day. "She collected the cardboard recipe tabs from Elle magazine," Dotti told Bon Appetit. However, while she did have fancy dishes in her arsenal, she preferred the more simple creations she learned from family and friends. "Her recipes were never about being a chef or making an impression," he mused.

In fact, just like Dolly Parton's diet was more normal than we expected, so too was Audrey Hepburn's. From pasta to ice cream, it included staples most folks love. Here's what the Hollywood icon typically ate each day. 

Contrary to what some may think, eating breakfast every day is actually a lot healthier than skipping it. Indeed, countless studies and healthcare professionals point to the numerous health benefits of breakfast, from better metabolism to a healthier overall weight. It seems Audrey Hepburn got that memo as she made sure her kids never missed the most important meal of the day, and neither did she. Speaking with Bon Appetit in 2015, her youngest son, Luca Dotti, whose dad was Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, revealed that, "She insisted on having a great breakfast."

Despite being children of Old Hollywood, Dotti recalled how he and older brother Sean Hepburn Ferrer, whose dad was actor Mel Ferrer, would sit at the kitchen table with their mom each morning. There, they would have meaningful conversations while indulging in their favorite: Hepburn's homemade muffin-madeleine creations. As for herself, she would keep it simple and kick off most days with bread, butter, and jam. As Dotti shared, his glamorous mother didn't believe in eating fancy for the mere sake of it. "It was more important to make everybody happy rather than be a chef like at Le Cordon Bleu," he wrote.

Older brother Ferrer had a similar recollection of his famous mom's morning routine. In his own autobiography, "Intimate Audrey," which he co-wrote with Wendy Holden and published in 2026, Ferrer opened up about her humble breakfast choices. "She started most days with a boiled egg, toast, and jam," he said of Hepburn (via People).

You'd never know it based on her trim figure, but Audrey Hepburn reportedly had a lifelong love affair with carbs. "She was crazy for pasta," son Luca Dotti told Bon Appetit in 2015, painting a picture of a healthy star who loved her comfort food. "All of her girlfriends were impressed that she would have two dishes in a row." Sharing a similar sentiment with People that same year, Dotti noted that his mom would eat the Italian staple, in one form or another, nearly every day. "Mum had a serious pasta addiction," Dotti quipped in his 2015 cookbook, "Audrey at Home" (via People). "She couldn't do without pasta."

Dotti's older brother, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, agreed. In his 1999 memoir, "Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit," he told readers that his mom had a "serious addiction" to carbs, per Town & Country. Both sons also agreed that their famous mother's favorite dish was Spaghetti al Pomodoro, which she'd prepare with extra sauce and indulge in weekly.

Hepburn's other go-tos included pasta with pesto and — believe it or not — pasta with ketchup. However, her love of carbs extended beyond Italian food. As Dotti told Bon Appetit, one of the recipes she made most often was baked stuffed potatoes. "She would cook them in the oven and everybody would fill them up the way they wanted," he recalled.

Audrey Hepburn, who suffered a lot of tragedy in her life, was just 10 years old when World War II began. Food was scarce in the years that followed and, as her son, Luca Dotti, told People, she almost didn't make it. "She survived by eating nettles and tulip bulbs and drinking water to fill her stomach," he shared. "By the end of the war, she was very close to death." Indeed, the teenaged Hepburn weighed a mere 88 pounds despite her considerable 5' 6" frame.

Things were hardest during the winter of 1944 going into 1945, which became known as the "Hunger Winter." The Hepburn family moved into a cellar to avoid bombing and as she herself would later reveal (via People), "I went as long as three days without food." When there was food, it was meager. "For months, breakfast was hot water and one slice of bread, made from brown beans," Hepburn recalled. "Broth for lunch was made from one potato."

In addition to drastic weight loss, the actor suffered numerous health complications, including jaundice and edema. According to Hepburn's family, the years of malnutrition also had a lifelong impact on her figure, contributing to her slim frame throughout adulthood. "People think because she was skinny that she had an eating disorder, but it's not true," Dotti adamantly told People.

It seems Audrey Hepburn loved comfort food and she wasn't one to deny herself a big plate of pasta. "She loved Italian food," son Luca Dotti told People in 2017, sharing that she liked to eat, as he put it "a little bit of everything." However, that didn't mean Hepburn would grab whatever struck her fancy at any hour of the day. "Snacks didn't really exist in our household," Dotti told People in 2015. "She was very strict."

Instead, the actor believed in meals prepared with intention. The Hollywood icon always chose her ingredients carefully, whether from her own garden or a local market where she'd only pick seasonal produce. She would then cook for her family with a focus on fresh veggies and grains, but limited meat. Once ready, the kids would be called upon to enjoy their meals with as much thought as went into preparing them. "When it was breakfast, lunch or dinner, her feeling was you should take your time for meals and stop what you are doing," Dotti told People. The only exception may have been her monthly detox during which she only ate plain yogurt with a grated apple to in hopes of reseting her digestive system.

While there are plenty of strange diet and health tips that celebs swear by, one of Hollywood's most glamorous icons ignored them all. Indeed, just like Audrey Hepburn didn't believe in snacking, she was also firmly against dieting. As both of her sons have shared, their mother kept her petite frame simply by eating thoughtfully. "She cooked and baked and ate what she liked but was careful with portions," elder son Sean Hepburn Ferrer wrote in "Intimate Audrey" (per People), underscoring the fact that she "eschewed all thoughts of fad diets." The actor's last partner, Robert Wolders, whom she dated from 1980 until her death in 1993, had a similar take. "She didn't diet," he told People in 2017, instead crediting Hepburn's healthy metabolism and love of exercise for her slim figure.

Indeed, Hepburn liked to go on walks every day which were anything but leisurely strolls. Ferrer cheekily recalled how his mom was known for "setting a punishing pace for those of us trailing behind." Wolders also had a similar take on Hepburn's quick steps, telling People, "We'd walk for miles — she could outwalk me." However, he was adamant that the icon never did anything to the extreme and didn't push herself to walk a certain distance, instead listening to her body to decide what it needed.

Audrey Hepburn may have liked to eat plenty of fruit and veggies, but she also always indulged her sweet tooth. "Chocolate was her favorite pick-me-up," her son, Luca Dotti, once told People, sharing she had some each day, particularly the dark variety. "A bite or sometimes more," he mused. "She had a special drawer in the house where she would put her chocolate and it was forbidden to touch."

Robert Wolders, Hepburn's last romantic partner, had similar recollections of her love for cacao. "She had chocolate after dinner, baking chocolate," he told People. What's more, he revealed that she would often pair the treat with a more adult indulgence. "She had a finger or two of Scotch at night," he said.

Meanwhile, Dotti's brother, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, best recalled how his mom would treat herself to vanilla ice cream with maple syrup at lunchtime. He also had fond memories of her baking prowess, which included a flourless chocolate cake she invented herself, as well as a signature dessert they'd all fight over. "Whenever we came home for Christmas, she always made her version of a pavlova," Ferrer told People in 2026. "We'd all sneak into the cold room in the back of our kitchen in Switzerland and by the next morning, it was gone."

Audrey Hepburn was one of those celebs with a signature look that's instantly recognizable, but she didn't work too hard to maintain it. When it comes down to it, Hepburn's diet was surprisingly normal. While breakfast was a simple affair, often consisting of brown bread and jam, lunch and dinner were freshly cooked meals she'd prepare herself. "Lunch would be chicken or veal or pasta, often with vegetables from the garden," the actor's last boyfriend, Robert Wolders, told People. "For dinner we often had soup with chicken and vegetables."

Indeed, Hepburn was a stickler for fruits and veggies and salads were present at most meals, but it was as much about aesthetic appearance as nutrition. Any meat dish that looked too drab and brown was offset with carrots and greens from the local market, as her son, Luca Dotti, told Bon Appetit in 2015. Other recipes she was particularly fond of included soy sauce chicken and pasta pomodoro made with onions, carrots, celery, and lots of garlic.

However, Hepburn didn't just have one dish and call it a day. As son Sean Hepburn Ferrer shared in his 2026 biography, "Intimate Audrey," the actor liked to have a well-rounded meal rather than something quick. Lunch, for example, was a three-course affair. "She'd have a salad or a soup, a sandwich, and a scoop of her favorite vanilla ice cream with maple syrup," he wrote (per People). A nice cold beer to wash it all down also wasn't uncommon.