Free Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris Page A

former ambassador Anne Cox Chambers and her good friend William Banks. Chambers, the publishing heiress and daughter of 1920 Democratic presidential nominee James M. Cox, turned out to be chairperson of the Atlanta UNICEF event—a pleasant coincidence with a pleasant outcome: She offered Hepburn and Wolders a “lift” in her private plane, to spare them another commercial flight.
    â€œAudrey asked what time,” recalls Chambers, “I said, ‘Oh, around noon, but there’s no hurry. Just come when it suits you.’ When we arrived at noon, she was already there—this radiant creature standing at the top of the steps in the doorway with that lovely smile, saying, ‘Welcome aboard your own airplane!’” As the plane was revving up, William Banks said half-facetiously, “I always say a prayer at takeoff,” and Audrey replied, “Oh, I just hold Robbie’s hand.” The Hepburn-Wolders friendship with Chambers and Banks was instant: All four of them had not only UNICEF in common, but also gardens—and dogs. 85 cc
    At the Atlanta ceremony, Jimmy Carter presented her with her award and said, “When I was young, guess who I wanted to be? You may think Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson—not at all. I wanted to be Humphrey Bogart or Fred Astaire or Cary Grant, I was so filled with envy of them being kissed by Audrey Hepburn.” Audrey replied, “I’ll fix that,” and gave him a big kiss. They would often work together later on UNICEF causes.
    William Banks was as impressed with Rob as with Audrey and, even more, with their relationship. “It was obvious that he adored her and she adored him,” says Banks, a courtly southern gentleman. “I’ve never seen a better marriage, even though they were not married. When the cameras converged on Audrey, Rob always stepped out of range in the most graceful way. He basked in the admiration people felt for her. He was self-effacing but not self abnegating, and she looked up to him so.” 86
    Rob was always there, says John Isaac, in every way:
    â€œShe would see him running around and say, ‘Isn’t he wonderful? I don’t know what I’d do without my Robbie.’ Always ‘my Robbie.’ Day in and out, he made sure everything was right.” Audrey often declared, “I could never have done all this work with UNICEF without Robbie.... He does a million things.” 87
    Jeffrey Banks summed it up: “The overwhelming thing about Audrey was that men wanted to protect and shield her from all the bad in the world. That was my instinct at age eleven, for instance. But Rob’s the one who truly did it.” 88
    Wendy Keys enjoyed watching their “sense of playfulness” together: “At the Peninsula Hotel after they’d just flown in, Rob and I were talking across a coffee table. She was busy unpacking, but he said, ‘Audrey, could we move these flowers? I can’t see Wendy.’ She swept them away and then plunked down a teeny little flowerpot instead and said, ‘Now can you see Wendy?’ She took advantage of the moment and the prop. It was delicious.
    â€œAnother time, she and I were gossiping with our legs swung over our respective sofas, yakking away. Rob came out of the shower in a terry-cloth robe and sat down to reveal a beautiful leg. She winked at me, and the two of us started to giggle. One of those moments—that constant twinkle in her eye.
    â€œThey shared a lot of things—their commitment to other people and to UNICEF. Rob’s own enormous UNICEF commitment was rarely acknowledged, and he didn’t want it to be. But he was certainly the best man in her life. The others were appalling, or normal, depending on your point of view. What a wonderful thing that she and Rob found each other.”
    The press, meanwhile, kept asking the same old question: Were they going to get married?
    â€œWhy bother?”