Sophia Loren is recovering from emergency surgery for a fractured hip following a fall on Sunday in her home in Geneva, Switzerland, according to Italian press reports.
Italy’s most famous living movie star, who turned 89 on Sept. 20, suffered multiple fractures after accidentally falling at home on Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoon, “Sophia was operated with positive outcome and will now have to undergo a brief period of convalescence followed by a complete rehabilitation,” reported Italian national news agency Ansa.
Ansa said news of Loren’s hospitalisation was announced by a restaurant bearing her name that she was set to inaugurate on Tuesday in the Italian port city of Bari.
The iconic actress was also meant to receive an honorary citizenship from Bari, the southern city where Loren stepped out of semi-retirement in 2020 to shoot her last movie, “The Life Ahead,” a Netflix original directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. In “Life Ahead,” Loren plays a former prostitute and Holocaust survivor who bonds with a Senegalese orphaned street kid. For her performance, she scored Italy’s David di Donatello Award for best actress.
Ponti did not immediately respond to a request from Variety for comment about his mother’s condition.
Loren’s last public appearance took place earlier this month, on Sept. 2, at the Armani “One Night Only” fashion show held during the Venice Film Festival where she was the guest of honor. Accompanied by Ponti and his wife Sasha Alexander, Loren sat in the front row with Jessica Chastain, Sydney Sweeney, Ang Lee and Ava DuVernay.
