Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, often referred to by her initials B.B., was a French actress, singer, model and animal rights activist.

Famous for portraying characters with hedonistic lives, she was one of the best known symbols of the sexual revolution. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remained a major pop culture icon. She acted in 47 films, performed in several musicals, and recorded more than 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985.

Born and raised in Paris, Bardot was an aspiring ballerina during her childhood. She started her acting career in 1952 and achieved international recognition in 1957 for her role in And God Created Woman (1956), catching the attention of many French intellectuals and earning her the nickname "sex kitten". She was the subject of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay The Lolita Syndrome, which described her as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the most liberated woman of France. She won a 1961 David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress Award for her work in The Truth (1960). Bardot later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (1963). For her role in Louis Malle's film Viva Maria! (1965), she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress. French President Charles de Gaulle called Bardot "the French export as important as Renault cars".

After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot became an animal rights activist and created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. She was known for her strong personality, outspokenness, and speeches on animal defense; she was fined twice for public insults. She had also been a controversial political figure, as of November 2021 having been fined six times for inciting racial hatred, when she criticised immigration and Islam in France and called residents of Réunion "savages". She was married to Bernard d'Ormale, a former adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen, a French far-right politician. Bardot was a member of the Global 500 Roll of Honour of the United Nations Environment Programme and received several awards and accolades from UNESCO and PETA.

Early life

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on 28 September 1934 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris to Louis Bardot and Anne-Marie Mucel. Bardot's father, who originated from Ligny-en-Barrois, was an engineer and the proprietor of several industrial factories in Paris. Her mother was the daughter of an insurance company director.[ She grew up in a conservative Catholic family, as had her father. She suffered from amblyopia as a child, which resulted in decreased vision of her left eye. She had one younger sister, Mijanou Bardot.

Bardot's childhood was prosperous; she lived in her family's seven-bedroom apartment in the luxurious 16th arrondissement; however, she recalled feeling resentful in her early years. Her father demanded that she follow strict behavioural standards, including good table manners, and wear appropriate clothes. Her mother was highly selective in choosing companions for her, so Bardot had very few childhood friends. Bardot cited a personal traumatic incident when she and her sister broke her parents' favourite vase while they were playing in the house; her father whipped the sisters 20 times and subsequently treated them like "strangers", demanding that they address their parents by the formal pronoun "vous", used in French when speaking to unfamiliar or higher-status persons outside the immediate family. The incident led to Bardot decisively resenting her parents and to her future rebellious lifestyle.

During World War II, when Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany, Bardot spent more time at home due to increasingly strict civilian surveillance. She became engrossed in dancing to records, which her mother saw as a potential for a ballet career. Bardot was admitted at the age of seven to the private school Cours Hattemer. She went to school three days a week, which gave her ample time to take dance lessons at a local studio under her mother's arrangements. In 1949, Bardot was accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris. She attended ballet classes held by Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev for three years. She also studied at the Institut de la Tour, a private Catholic high school near her home.

Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, the director of the magazines Elle and Le Jardin des Modes, hired Bardot in 1949 as a "junior" fashion model. On 8 March 1950, 15-year-old Bardot appeared on the cover of Elle, which brought her an acting offer for the film Les Lauriers sont coupés from director Marc Allégret. Her parents opposed her becoming an actress, but her grandfather was supportive, saying that "If this little girl is to become a whore, cinema will not be the cause." At the audition, Bardot met Roger Vadim, who later notified her that she did not get the role. They subsequently fell in love. Her parents fiercely opposed their relationship; her father announced to her one evening that she would continue her education in England and that he had bought her a train ticket for the following day. Bardot reacted by putting her head into an oven with open fire; her parents stopped her and ultimately accepted the relationship, on condition that she marry Vadim at the age of 18.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Bardot was married four times, with her last marriage lasting far longer than the previous three combined. By her own count, she had a total of 17 romantic relationships. Bardot would characteristically leave for another relationship when "the present was getting lukewarm"; she said, "I have always looked for passion. That's why I was often unfaithful. And when the passion was coming to an end, I was packing my suitcase."

Roger Vadim

On 20 December 1952, aged 18, Bardot married director Roger Vadim. They separated in 1956 after she became involved with And God Created Woman co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, divorcing the next year. Trintignant at the time was married to actress Stéphane Audran. Bardot and Vadim had no children together, but remained in touch for the rest of his life and even collaborated on later projects. Bardot and Trintignant lived together for about two years, spanning the period before and after Bardot's divorce from Vadim, but they never married. Their relationship was complicated by Trintignant's frequent absence due to military service and Bardot's affair with musician Gilbert Bécaud.

Jacques Charrier

After recovering from an overdose in 1958, Bardot began a relationship with actor Jacques Charrier. They married on 18 June 1959. Bardot had an affair with Glenn Ford in the early 1960s, and Bardot and Charrier divorced in 1962. Sami Frey was mentioned as the reason for her divorce from Charrier. Bardot was enamoured of Frey, but he quickly left her.

Pregnancy and Son

Bardot became pregnant before she and Charrier married. Bardot was extremely dismayed—she had previously stated "I am not a mother, nor do I want to be one"—and sought an abortion; however, abortion was illegal at that time in France. In her book Initiales B. B: Mémoires, she recalled: "I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid." Numerous times, she punched herself in the stomach and asked her doctor for morphine in an attempt to abort the baby.

During the final months of pregnancy, photographers surrounded her house, vying for photos of Bardot pregnant. Nicolas-Jacques Charrier was born on 11 January 1960, only seven months after their wedding. He would be Bardot's only child. She had been so wary of the press she decided to give birth at home. Following his birth, Bardot became depressed and attempted suicide. She later wrote that her son was a "cancerous tumor" and that she would have "preferred to give birth to a little dog". She also added, "I'm not made to be a mother. 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." She refused to breastfeed Nicolas and whenever she held him, he sensed her agitation and began to cry.

After she and Charrier divorced, the latter gained sole custody of Nicolas. When Nicolas was 12, he asked Bardot if he could stay with her, but she turned him away in favor of party guests. Nicolas was hurt and did not speak to her afterwards. In her memoirs, Bardot wrote that she loved Nicolas "the most in the world", but Nicolas wanted nothing to do with her. When he married Norwegian model Anne-Line Bjerkan in 1984, Bardot was not invited to the wedding. Bardot became a grandmother when the two had daughters in 1985 and 1990. She tried to make peace with him on multiple occasions, but to no avail. 
In 1997, Charrier and Nicolas sued her and her publisher, Grasset, for the hurtful remarks she had made in her memoir. She was ordered to pay Charrier £17,000 and Nicolas £11,000. 
In 2018, she stated that she and Nicolas, now a grandfather himself, were on good terms, speaking regularly and visiting each other once a year.

Gunter Sachs

Bardot's third marriage was to German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs, lasting from 14 July 1966 to 7 October 1969, though they had separated the previous year.

Bernard d'Ormale

Bardot's fourth husband was Bernard d'Ormale; they had been married since 16 August 1992 until her death.

Other relationships

Bardot with French singer Sacha Distel in 1958

Bardot was invited to the birthday party of musician Sacha Distel in 1958, and they had a much-publicized relationship until 1959. 

From 1963 to 1965, she lived with musician Bob Zagury. 
While filming Shalako, she rejected Sean Connery's advances; she said, "It didn't last long because I wasn't a James Bond girl! I have never succumbed to his charm!" 
In 1967, while married to Sachs, she had a relationship with singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg; they recorded two songs together: "Je t'aime... moi non plus", which was not released until 1986, and "Bonnie and Clyde". 
In 1968, she began dating Patrick Gilles, who co-starred with her in The Bear and the Doll (1970); but she ended their relationship in spring 1971.

Over the next few years, Bardot dated bartender/ski instructor Christian Kalt, nightclub owner Luigi "Gigi" Rizzi writer John Gilmore, actor Warren Beatty, and Laurent Vergez, her co-star in Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman. 
In 1975, she entered a relationship with artist Miroslav Brozek and posed for some of his sculptures. Brozek was also an occasional actor; his stage name is Jean Blaise [fr]. The couple lived together for four years, separating in December 1979. 

From 1980 to 1985, Bardot had a live-in relationship with French TV producer Allain Bougrain-Dubourg [fr]. 
In 2018, in an interview accorded to Le Journal du Dimanche, she denied rumors of relationships with Johnny Hallyday, Jimi Hendrix, and Mick Jagger.

Wealth

Yahoo estimated Bardot's net worth to be around $65 million. She was estimated to have made about $4 million from her 1997 memoir Initials B.B. After her separation from Vadim, Bardot acquired a historic property dating from the 16th century, called Le Castelet, in Cannes. The fourteen-bedroom villa, surrounded by lush gardens, olive trees, and vineyards, consisted of several buildings. She listed it for sale in 2020, for €6 million. In 1958, she bought a second property called La Madrague, located in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer. She lived there until her death in 2025.

Health

In early 1958, her breakup with Jean-Louis Trintignant was followed in quick order by a reported nervous breakdown in Italy, according to newspaper reports. A suicide attempt with sleeping pills two days earlier was also noted but was denied by her public relations manager. She recovered within several weeks. On 27 September 1983, the eve of her 49th birthday, Bardot took an overdose of sleeping pills or tranquilizers with red wine, then wandered out to the beach, where she was later pulled from the surf. She had to be rushed to the hospital, where her life was saved after a stomach pump was used to evacuate the pills from her body. Bardot was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984. She refused to undergo chemotherapy treatment and decided only to do radiation therapy. She recovered in 1986. On 16 October 2025, it was reported that Bardot had been admitted into the Saint-Jean Hospital in Toulon three weeks prior to have surgery for a "serious illness". The surgery was successful, and Bardot was reported to be recovering at her home in Saint-Tropez.