A promise french model and actress Brigitte Bardot made to her son has resurfaced following her death aged 91 yesterday (28 December).
An official statement from the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, a foundation dedicated to animal protection, to Agence France-Presse, announced her death: "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation."
The statement added that the foundation offers its 'sincere condolences' to her family and loved ones, as well as the people of Saint-Tropez.
"The foundation will continue, more than ever, to champion the work of Brigitte Bardot," it concluded.
Advert
Bruno Jacquelin, who spoke on behalf of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, told The Associated Press that she passed away in her home in southern France.
No cause of death was provided, and there are currently no arrangements in place for funeral or memorial services.
Bardot, who was born 28 September, 1934, in Paris, France, has long been hailed as one of the most iconic figures in 20th-century cinema and popular culture.
She began her career as a model in her teens, appearing on the cover of Elle magazine at the young age of just 15 - an exposure which led to her film debut in Le Trou Normand (1952).
Bardot’s international breakthrough came with Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman (1956), which turned her into a global sex symbol and helped redefine the portrayal of female sensuality in European and Hollywood cinema.
The late actress was married four times, including to director Roger Vadim and actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she had her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, born in 1960.
Details about the estranged relationship between Bardot and Charrier, now 65, have since resurfaced following her death.
Bardot made it no secret that she didn't want to be a mother.
In her 1996 memoir titled Initiales B.B., the actress referred to her son, who was raised by his father's parents, as the 'object of my misfortune'.
"I’m not made to be a mother," Bardot wrote in her memoir. "I’m not adult enough — I know it’s horrible to have to admit that, but I’m not adult enough to take care of a child."
In the book, she opened up about wanting an abortion, but was forced to carry the pregnancy to term because the procedure was illegal in France at the time.
"I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid," she wrote at the time.
After the book was published, Charrier and her ex-husband sued Bardot over an invasion of privacy, ending with her being ordered to pay around $40,000 in fines.
But in the later years of her life, Bardot appeared to change her approach to speaking publicly about the rift.
"I promised Nicolas I would never talk about him in my interviews," she said in an interview with Paris Match, published in June 2024.
Charrier slipped out of the spotlight as he got older, choosing a quieter life in Norway with his wife, Norwegian model Anne-Line Bjerkan, and their growing clan of children and grandchildren.
Over the years, he and Bardot kept things civil, staying loosely in touch. She even married her fourth and final husband, Bernard d’Ormale, in 1992, near where Nicolas was living in Norway.
By 2018, Bardot confirmed that they made a point of seeing each other once a year.
Over the 1950s and 1960s, the A-lister starred in over 40 films, including La Vérité (1960), Le Mépris (1963), and Viva Maria! (1965), showcasing a range that extended beyond her iconic bombshell image to more serious dramatic roles.
However, Bardot made the decision to say goodbye to the spotlight and retired from acting in 1973 at the age of 39 due to a desire for a simpler life. She then dedicated herself to animal rights activism, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals in 1986.
But the French icon was not without controversy as, in 2019, Bardot was fined for inciting racial hatred after calling the people of Réunion 'degenerate savages'.
It was her fifth such conviction, following previous Islamophobic remarks about the island’s Tamil community and a 2006 letter criticising the Muslim festival of Aid el-Kebir, also known as Eid al-Adha.
Bardot was also known for her strong support for France's Front National, a far-right political party which has since been renamed National Rally.
Topics: Celebrity, World News, News, TV And Film, Parenting
Rhiannon Ingle