Brigitte Bardot was one of the most popular celebrities of her time. Now she is a grandmother and has lived a full life. If you want to know more about her granddaughter, who followed in her footsteps, then read on…
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on 28 September 1934 in France. She was only 15 when she started modelling and began her amazing career. She dreamed of becoming a ballerina. As a teenager, she appeared on the cover of Elle magazine.
She soon attracted the attention of many people. She began acting in the 1950s, and in post-war Europe, Brigitte became a sex symbol. Her role in the 1956 film And God Created Woman brought her great fame.
She came from a wealthy family of industrialists. As a child, she considered herself ‘ugly’ and therefore could never have imagined that she would become a sex symbol for centuries.
‘I am a girl from a good family who received an excellent education. One day I gave it all up and became a bohemian,’ she said later.
Her first significant role in English was in the film Doctor at Sea, where she played Dirk Bogarde’s lover. In the mid-1960s, she decided to achieve great success and set herself the goal of breaking into the international arena.
Born in France, the actress starred in her first Hollywood film in 1966, but it was not easy to win over American audiences, and the film (Dear Brigitte) was not a great success.
With her long blonde hair, flawless complexion, sensual lips and voluptuous figure, Brigitte was hard to miss. But her Hollywood films flopped and became box office disappointments. People had high hopes for her role in the western Shalako with Sean Connery, but the 1968 film received mixed reviews.
In 1973, Brigitte shocked many fans by announcing her retirement from cinema. She was still a big star and very active in the entertainment industry.
But that was precisely the reason for her decision: ultimately, the burden of celebrity life was suffocating her.
‘Most great actresses have met a tragic death. When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of luxury and glamour, to images and adoration, to the desire to be desired, I saved my life,’ Bardot said in an interview with The Guardian.
‘At first, I liked what people said about me, but very soon it began to suffocate and destroy me. For 20 years, while I was acting in films, every time shooting began, I would get herpes.’
After leaving the cinema, she cut herself off from the outside world and became a recluse.
However, Brigitte managed to gather her strength and decided to use her fame for good. Thirteen years after leaving the cinema, she created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.
Her interest in animals began in 1962, when she was only 28 years old.
‘She didn’t receive much love from her parents, and when we started dating, she didn’t want jewellery, she wanted a dog,’ Roger Vadim, director of the film And God Created Beauty and Brigitte’s first husband, told People magazine.
He added: ‘She was always allergic to fame, power and everything associated with success. The innocence and honesty of animals calmed her.’
The organisation promotes animal rights and has done a lot of good over the years. For example, the foundation supports species conservation programmes. It has also funded a wildlife hospital in Chile and set up centres for abused bears in Bulgaria, koalas in Australia and elephants in Thailand.
Today, Brigitte Bardot is 88 years old, and her legacy remains unshakeable.
In 2020, Vogue named Brigitte one of the ‘most beautiful French actresses of all time.’
The 88-year-old screen legend and former blonde bombshell set new fashion standards with her hairstyles and makeup — which is why she is considered one of the most iconic faces, models and actresses of the 1950s and 1960s.
She reportedly lives in the French coastal town of La Madrague. The former star is married to Bernard d’Hormale, a wealthy businessman. They were married on 16 August 1992 in Norway.
Brigitte is still an active animal rights activist. In an interview with Vogue, she was asked what gives her the strength to get out of bed in the morning.
‘The suffering of animals,’ she replied.
‘You probably know that I have had difficulty walking lately. I can no longer take long walks or swim. But I am happy compared to what animals have to endure. The dozens of letters I receive every day testify to the horrors that animals continue to suffer.’
On 11 January 1960, she gave birth to her son Nicolas-Jacques Charrière. She shared custody of her son with actor Jacques Charrière, who was her second husband. Bardot always stated that she was not interested in motherhood. She once said, “I didn’t want to give birth to another human being. I think there are too many of them on Earth already. And they scare me.”
‘Today, I believe that it can be learned. But at the time, it was painful,’ she once said. She recounted her experience of motherhood in a book called Initialed BB, published in 1996.
She compared her pregnancy to a tumour, saying, ‘It was like a tumour that fed on me, that I carried in my swollen body, thinking only of that blessed moment when we would finally get rid of it.’
★ Brigitte Bardot and her son Nicolas-Jacques Charrière
Published by Celluloid Heroes on Thursday, 11 August 2016
When she gave birth and was shown the baby, she remembers saying to the midwives, ‘I’m going crazy, I don’t want to see him anymore.’
In 1963, when she divorced Jacques Charrier, she left him full custody of the child and showed no interest in his upbringing. As her son grew up, he led a life about which his mother had no idea. In 1984, he married Norwegian supermodel Anne-Line Bjørkan and became the father of two children. He did not invite his mother to the wedding.
He had no contact with his mother until 1996, when legal proceedings brought them together again. After reading his mother’s book, Initials B.B., he was shocked and stunned by what she had written. He and his father sued Bardot for invasion of privacy and then for violation of the intimacy of intrauterine development.
Bardot was ordered to pay 150,000 francs to her ex-husband Jacques and 100,000 francs to her son Nicolas.
In 2014, she said, ‘I had a son who did not awaken maternal feelings in me — it’s not my fault…’
Her son leads a full life in Norway and lives there with his daughters Anna-Camille and Tea-Josefine.
But in 2009, something changed, and the actress decided to rebuild her relationship with her estranged son. ‘When Nicolas was a child, our relationship was painful. For him and for me,’ she said.
He still lives in Norway, but visits Bardot once a year in La Madrague, France. Sometimes he comes alone, sometimes he brings his family with him. Bardot meets with her granddaughters and even her great-granddaughter.
Now she loves her son very much. She said, ‘I love him in a special way. He is not like me. Physically, he has inherited a lot from his father.’
It’s very nice that Brigitte has finally repaired her relationship with her estranged son. Share this article with other fans of the actress so they can learn more about her life!
