Though she was one of the most famous film actresses of her time, to Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn has always just been his mom.

In a new interview, the late star’s 45-year-old son revealed he never knew his mother — or her Hollywood friends! — was a screen legend until after she passed away at age 63 from cancer in 1993.

audrey hepburn

Audrey in October 1990.

“I didn’t realize until after her death she was such an icon. When she was alive she was always caring about her charities and us. There was a big gap between her private life and public life,” he said during a sit-down on the UK’s This Morning.

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“When I was growing up there were movie stars coming to the house all the time but we weren’t aware they were famous, when they came over they were just introduced as her friends. It was only later that I found out Julie Andrews was Mary Poppins, or who Roger Moore was, they were just her friends,” he said.

audrey hepburn and julie andrews

Audrey and Julie in April 1965.

Luca added his mother always believed she “stumbled upon” Hollywood and never strived to become a leading lady playing iconic characters including Holly Golightly and Eliza Doolittle. “She never gave the impression she was doing it for the stardom… she didn’t even want to do Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” he said of his mother.

Audrey and her second husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti — who died in 2007 — welcomed their only child, Luca, in February 1970. She was also a mom to an older son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, 54, from her first marriage to actor and producer Mel Ferrer. Mel passed away at age 90 in June 2008.