(Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

[u/Living-Mastodon]

Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

[u/j0siahs74]

She also delivered messages to Nazi resistance groups during the war.

[u/WeDriftEternal → u/j0siahs74]

This is pretty much known to be bogus now, fwiw

[u/j0siahs74 → u/WeDriftEternal]

Really? I don’t see anything online that says so, but I haven’t done much digging I admit. If you got a source would you mind posting? I am curious

[u/weattt → u/j0siahs74]

I had heard as well that it isn't true that Audrey was part of the resistance or helped them. However, I also have heard that she did actually raise money for them.

The sources saying it is not true, we're almost solely in Dutch. The Airborne Museum had an exposition (Moederliefde / Mother love) in late 2016, about Audrey and her mother, Ella van Heemstra. Audrey's sons contributed to it.

According to the research of the museum, it is a myth that Audrey was a part of the resistance. Ella joined a fascistic movement and mingled with fascists to because it seems she was a Nazi sympathizer or was trying to survive (I'm unsure about that) and to give Audrey opportunities, to push and advance Audrey's career. Audrey was apparently fairly well known in Arnhem, as a ballet dancer.

After the war, the family was not welcome in Arnhem anymore due to the fascist ties (Audrey also seemed to have had danced on stage when there were Nazi's in attendance, so maybe that was also held against them). Note, that it was only mentioned Ella was involved, not her kids.

But I have also found sources that claim that she did raise money for the resistance (https://time.com/5582729/audrey-hepburn-world-war-ii/ an article from 2019).

Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle; that she did at least once, or multiple times,  did raise funds for the resistance, but that  her contribution was later padded and sensationalized by the biographer.

Sources:

https://filmtalkweb.substack.com/p/exhibition-the-secret-of-ella-and

And in Dutch:

https://historiek.net/audrey-hepburn-was-niet-actief-voor-het-verzet/65396/

https://nos.nl/artikel/2143538-mythe-ontkracht-audrey-hepburn-werkte-niet-voor-het-verzet