Katharine Hepburn husband: Meet Ludlow Ogden Smith

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress who worked as a Hollywood leading lady for six decades. She was recognized for her headstrong independence, energetic attitude, and outspokenness, and she developed a movie persona that reflected this public image, frequently playing strong-willed, smart women.

Hepburn left university determined to be an actress. The day following graduation, she went to Baltimore to meet Edwin H. Knopf, who owned a successful stock theatrical company. Knopf was impressed by her eagerness and placed Hepburn in his current show, The Czarina.

In May 2003, an aggressive tumor was discovered in Hepburn’s neck. The choice was made not to medically intervene, and she died of cardiac arrest on June 29, 2003, at the Hepburn family home in Fenwick, Connecticut.

Katharine Hepburn husband: Meet Ludlow Ogden Smith

Hepburn’s only marriage was to Ludlow Ogden Smith, a socialite-businessman from Philadelphia whom she met while a student at Bryn Mawr.

The couple wed on December 12, 1928, when she was 21 and he was 29. Smith changed his name to S. Ogden Ludlow at her behest so that she would not be “Kate Smith”, which she considered too plain.

She never fully committed to the marriage and prioritized her career. The move to Hollywood in 1932 cemented the couple’s estrangement. Hepburn filed for divorce in Yucatán on April 30, 1934, and it was finalized on May 8.

Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Smith for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career, and in her autobiography, she called herself “a terrible pig” for exploiting his love. The pair remained friends until he died in 1979.