Brigitte Bardot was the very embodiment of what a sex symbol should be and her image of the gorgeous readily available blonde contrasted sharply with her increasingly outspoken views as she got older.
Brigitte Bardot the early years….
Born Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot on 28th September 1934 and the older of two daughters of Louis and Anne-Marie Bardot. Her father was an industrialist, and she grew up in the city’s affluent 16th arrondissement where she worked in a millinery shop run by her mother and was spotted dancing in a show for the shop. She had already spent 10 years training as a ballet dancer, had attended a private school and in 1950 saw her on the cover of Elle Magazine. It was that magazine photo shoot that caught the eye of what would later be her first husband Roger Vadim who at the time was working as a director’s assistant. Flattered by his attention she made the fitst of several suicide attempts in her life when her parents forbid the pair getting married. But three months after she turned 18 in 1952 they did get married and Vadim cast her in his directorial debut, ‘And God created Woman (1956) although she had been appearing in films since her own film debut in 1952’s, ‘Le Trou Normand’. The film was set in her favoured Saint Tropez where her family had a family home and she too would buy a home only to find fans breaking in and stealing her underwear. The film saw her as sexually passionate young woman in a time when such characters were normally mature. Here with her hair dyed blonde. heavy black eye make up and a Lolita=esque charm it would be an image that she would forever be associated. She would be the first to admit that her acting talent didn’t match her looks and though the film bombed in France it did great business in the US fuelled by a rumour that she was having an affair with her married co-star Jean-Louise Trintignant. Except its wasn’t a rumour it was true and shortly afterwards in 1957 her marriage to Vadim would end.
The first Brigitte Bardot marriage…..
It was the first of four marriages and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier but not before she had had relationships with singers that included Sacha Distel. But this second marriage was because of an unplanned pregnancy that she had wanted terminated but Swiss clinics, as discrete as they were, knew that her fame meant it could never be kept secret. In fact Bardot accused Carrier of forcing her to have the child that saw him sue for libel. It’s little wonder that knowing this her son Nicolas had a distant relationship with is mother.
AT 26 she again attempted suicide having been found in a coma in a field having OD’d on sleeping tablets purportedly in turmoil over her co-star Sami Frey who she starred with in ‘1960’s ‘The Truth’ and 1962 would see her second marriage ended in divorce.
Her third marriage was in 1966 to Gunter Sachs a photographer who showered her quite literally in flowers from a helicopter. On his part he had pursued her for marriage as a bet and it would be her shortest marriage lasting only three years ending in 1969 during which time she had an affair with Serge Gainsbourg having recorded the sexually charged, ‘Je T’aime’ with him.
The film career draws to an close…..
By the late sixties her films were increasingly forgettable with only 1968’s ‘Shalako’ starring opposite Sean Connery and the UK comedian Eric Sykes being vaguely memorable. By now her personal life was of far more interest than her films and she was already growing weary of the fame and adulation that she attracted and at 34 years of age Bardot was outgrowing the sex kitten image but was finding it difficult to reinvent herself not that she had much interest in that and after 40 films and shortly before her 40th birthday she retired with her last starring role being, ‘Don Juan’ which was for her first husband Roger Vadim who directed.
Animal welfare career…..
Her interest in animal welfare had already been a concern for her and she had been vocal about it since the early 1960’s and now that she was retired it would become her life mission publicly campaigning against whaling, abattoir practice, seal culling, bull fighting, fur trapping, animal testing and even the slaughter of horses for meat. It was her work in that capacity that she met TV presenter Allain Bougrain-Dubourg whose work on wildlife productions gasve them an common interest and having met by chance at an airport they began a relationship, her first in seven years, but almost inevitably it ended with him finding her too depressive. It affected Bardot badly and on her 49th birthday she made another suicide attempt.
Brigitte Bardot and her work in animal welfare gave her a drive and 1986 saw her setting up her own foundation for the welfare and protection of animals that she funded by auctioning off possessions from her life as an actress. In 1992 she met and married her fourth and last husband Bernard d’Ormale an advisor to National Front leader Jean- Marie Le Pen and they quickly married and would remain so until the end of her life.
The court cases begin……
It would also see her endorse Le Pen running for Presidency and see her espouse opinions against homosexuality, immigration and race and her 1996 biography that she had written over many years saw her speak frankly about such matters as well as her many relationships. Her outspokenness in her later years would see her in court where she would incur substantial fines over issues that included the barbarism of halal abattoirs as well as anti-muslim and anti-immigration pronouncements. By 2008, she had been convicted of the same charge five times.
Though it was her screen roles that made her an icon her heart really lay with animal welfare and she later said, ‘“I gave my beauty and my youth to men,,,,,,and now I am giving my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals.” Her foundation to date had taken in 12,000 animals in 70 countries
Brigitte Bardot died on 28th December 2025 aged 91 years of age
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