Sophia Loren, 89, undergoes emergency surgery after bad fall at Swiss home

Sophia Loren has undergone emergency surgery after sustaining several fractures in a bad fall.

The Italian film star, 89, fell in her bathroom and suffered multiple fractures to her hip, as well as a serious fracture to her femur, which required surgery.

A source close to Loren told The Hollywood Reporter that there is “cautious optimism” about the outcome of the operation and Loren’s recovery, which will reportedly include a brief period of convalescence and a long rehabilitation.

Loren had been scheduled to open a restaurant in the Italian city of Bari on Tuesday (26 September). The restaurant – the fourth such eatery to bear her name – was the one to break the news of her fall, confirming that all her engagements for the foreseeable future have now been cancelled.

In addition to the restaurant opening in Bari, the Arabesque (1966) star had been due to receive honorary citizenship from the southern Italian city.

Loren recently made a public appearance at the Armani fashion show in Venice on 2 September, which was held during the 80th Venice Film Festival.

Sources told the publication that the actor’s sons, Carlo, 54, and Edoardo, 50, are by her side at the hospital.

The Independent has contacted a representative of Loren for comment.

In 2020, Edoardo, a filmmaker, directed his mother in her most recent movie, titled The Life Ahead.

The film, which won Loren a David di Donatello Award for best actress, followed the story of an ageing Holocaust survivor who forges an unlikely bond with a bitter street kid from Senegal when she takes him in after he robs her.

The Life Ahead was well received, earning an impressive 92 per cent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

In an interview with The Independent at the time, Loren called her role “beautiful”.

“She was strong, she was fragile, she was funny, touching… everything that a woman is and everything I have always wanted to bring on the screen. In my career, I’ve always tried to play women with a strong character,” she said.

The year prior, Loren was the subject of a Netflix document What Would Sophia Loren Do?

Loren is best known for films including A Special Day (1977), Marriage, Italian Style (1964), and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963).

Her role as Filumena in Marriage, Italian Style – who tries to trick her philandering lover into marriage so that her three children, born out of wedlock, might have a family name – earned her a second Oscar nomination.

In 1961, she became the first performer to win an Oscar for a foreign-language role with Two Women, in which she starred as a mother who saves her daughter.

You can read The Indepedent’s interview with Loren here.