The world bid farewell to one of France’s most iconic—and controversial—figures this week, as news broke that Brigitte Bardot, the legendary actress, animal rights activist, and enduring symbol of feminine allure, died at her home in southern France on December 28, 2025. She was 91 years old. The announcement came via the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, the organization she founded and led for decades, which paid tribute to her as “an exceptional woman who gave up everything for a world more respectful of animals.” Her passing marks the end of a tumultuous and dazzling era for French cinema and international culture, but also invites reflection on the complexities of her personal life and public persona.
Bardot’s death followed a period of declining health. According to several reports, she underwent minor surgery in late September 2025 at Saint-Jean Hospital in Toulon, a procedure that became complicated and kept her hospitalized for two weeks. Though she returned home to Saint-Tropez to recover, she was again rushed to hospital in November for treatment of an undisclosed illness, as reported by Nice Matin and confirmed by her foundation. Despite rumors and even premature reports of her death, Bardot herself took to social media to reassure fans: “I don’t know who the idiot is who spread the false news of my death tonight,” she wrote, insisting she was “doing well” and had no intention of “leaving anytime soon.” Nevertheless, just a few weeks later, her foundation confirmed her passing, stating simply that she died at home, surrounded by the legacy she built.
Born Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot on September 28, 1934, in Paris, Bardot’s early life hinted at her future in the spotlight. Raised in an upper-middle-class family, she trained in classical ballet as a child, but her destiny lay elsewhere. By age 15, she graced the cover of Elle magazine, and at 18, she made her film debut in Le Trou Normand. The turning point came in 1956, when she starred in And God Created Woman, directed by her first husband Roger Vadim. The film’s sultry energy and Bardot’s uninhibited presence catapulted her to international fame, making her the face of a new era of sexual freedom and cinematic daring.
Bardot’s filmography reads like a who’s-who of mid-century European cinema. She worked with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt, 1963) and Louis Malle, and starred alongside Claudia Cardinale in The Legend of Frenchie King (1971). Her style—bikinis, bold eyeliner, and the now-famous “Bardot neckline”—became instantly recognizable and widely imitated, while her off-screen persona only added to the mystique. She was, as AFP put it, “France’s outspoken sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s.”
But behind the glamour, Bardot’s personal life was anything but simple. She was married four times: first to Vadim (1952–1957), then to actor Jacques Charrier (1959–1962), followed by Swiss socialite Gunter Sachs (1966–1969), and finally to businessman and political adviser Bernard d’Ormale (1992 until her death). Her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, was born in early January 1960 during her marriage to Jacques Charrier. The arrival of her son was fraught with difficulty and controversy. Bardot was famously ambivalent—sometimes openly hostile—about motherhood, sentiments she did not hide from the public or her memoirs. In her 1996 autobiography Initiales B.B., she wrote, “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 even described her pregnancy as being “like a tumor” and once told the press she “would have preferred to give birth to a little dog.”
These remarks, repeated and dissected in the media, led to a rift with her son that would play out in the courts. In 1997, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier sued his mother over statements made in her memoir. According to The Independent, Bardot was ordered to pay her son nearly $20,000 in damages, and an additional $30,000 to her ex-husband Jacques Charrier for similar comments. The legal battle made headlines and cast a shadow over Bardot’s later years. Yet, in a 2018 interview with Var Matin, Bardot suggested that some reconciliation had taken place: “We speak regularly. Living in Norway, he visits me once a year at La Madrague [her estate in southern France], alone or with his family, his wife, my granddaughters. I love him in a special way. And he loves me too. He looks a bit like me. Physically, he has inherited a lot from his father.”
After her retirement from film in 1973—she famously told The Guardian, “When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of opulence and glitter, images and adoration, the quest to be desired, I was saving my life”—Bardot dedicated herself to animal welfare. She founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation that same year, launching campaigns against seal hunting, the fur trade, and animal cruelty. Her activism was relentless and sometimes controversial, as she became known for her uncompromising stance and willingness to use her celebrity for her causes. The Foundation’s statement after her death underscored this: “Her legacy remains, living through the actions and battles that the foundation pursues with the same passion and the same loyalty to her ideals.”
Bardot’s later years were also marked by political controversy. She was a vocal supporter of France’s far-right National Rally party and was fined multiple times for inciting racial hatred, including for inflammatory remarks about the citizens of the French island of Réunion. These positions alienated some former admirers but did little to diminish her place in the public consciousness. As The Guardian noted, she was “outrageous, outspoken and controversial”—qualities that both defined and haunted her legacy.
Despite—or perhaps because of—her contradictions, Bardot’s cultural influence endures. She remains a muse in fashion, art, and music, even being name-checked in recent songs by Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo. In 2023, she gave her blessing to a biographical series about her life, and in 2025, she narrated and was interviewed for the documentary Bardot, offering rare reflections on her career, activism, and personal journey.
Brigitte Bardot’s life defied easy categorization: she was a luminous star, a divisive public figure, and a fiercely independent woman who shaped her own destiny. Her passing leaves behind a legacy as complex and captivating as the woman herself, echoing through cinema, activism, and the culture she helped to transform.
