© Virginia McKenna/bornfree.org.uk

A lion cub is purchased from a London department store, raised in a furniture shop, successfully introduced into the wilds of Kenya, and recognizes his human friends when he's reunited with them a year later. Tens of millions of people have viewed the sensational video, but lesser known is the story of Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, the husband-and-wife stars of the 1966 film Born Free, who facilitated Christian's move to Africa—and housed the lion in their Surrey garden while the details were worked out.

Travers and McKenna met the lion by chance, but the friendship they'd built with George Adamson, the legendary gamekeeper and subject of Born Free, while shooting the film proved essential to finding Christian a home in Kenya. These days, McKenna spends her time working on the foundation she helped found in 1984, also called Born Free, rehabilitating animals that have suffered in captivity and returning them to the wild. She took some time out between tending to the organization's rescue centers in South Africa, India, Malawi and Ethiopia to tell us what she remembers about the lion's journey from cramped London quarters to East African bush.

See the pictures and learn the rest of the story, and tune in to check out episode 14 of Oprah's Lifeclass for more lessons animals have taught us.