The death of French film icon Brigitte Bardot at age 91 on Sunday, December 28, 2025, has ignited a firestorm across social media, with tributes from celebrities like Apple Martin and Chappell Roan quickly giving way to public retractions and heated discussions about Bardot’s divisive legacy. What began as heartfelt remembrances rapidly transformed into a reckoning with the star’s long and controversial history of far-right political activism and inflammatory remarks against minorities and the LGBTQ+ community.
Apple Martin, daughter of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin, was among the first to post a tribute to Bardot on Instagram following news of her passing. By Monday, however, Martin had deleted her initial post and issued a new statement on her Instagram Story. “I was completely unaware of Bardot’s views and will never support any kind of hatred directed at anyone,” Martin wrote, according to Fox News. “She is not the person I thought she was whatsoever.”
Martin’s about-face mirrored a similar episode involving pop singer Chappell Roan. The Grammy-winning artist, whose 2023 hit “Red Wine Supernova” was inspired by Bardot, initially shared a tribute on her Instagram Story to her eight million followers. “Rest in peace Ms. Bardot. She was my inspiration for red wine supernova,” Roan wrote, referencing the opening lyric of her song: “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot / She showed me things I didn’t know.” But as the backlash mounted and fans pointed out Bardot’s history of bigoted statements, Roan swiftly deleted the tribute and posted a blunt retraction. “Holy shit I did not know all that insane shit Ms. Bardot stood for, obvs I do not condone this. Very disappointing to learn,” she wrote, as reported by Paste Magazine and HuffPost.
The rapid reversals by both Martin and Roan highlight the complicated legacy Bardot leaves behind. While celebrated for her roles in films like And God Created Woman and for her animal rights activism, Bardot’s later years were marked by a series of convictions in French courts for inciting racial hatred. According to The Daily Mail and The Associated Press, Bardot was fined multiple times—including a 20,000 euro penalty in 2019 for calling the inhabitants of the French island of La Réunion “savages.” In her book Le Carré de Pluton, Bardot lamented “an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims,” resulting in a 30,000 franc fine. She also opposed halal and kosher food practices, with French courts ruling that her statements stigmatized Muslim and Jewish communities.
Bardot’s controversial remarks were not limited to issues of race or religion. She drew widespread condemnation for her homophobic statements, calling LGBTQ+ people “fairground freaks” in her 2003 book Un Cri dans le Silence. As noted by HuffPost, she went so far as to compare queer people to pedophiles and, in a 2018 interview with Paris Match, dismissed the #MeToo movement as “hypocritical, ridiculous and uninteresting.” “Many actresses flirt with producers to get a role. Then when they tell the story afterward, they say they have been harassed,” Bardot said. “In actual fact, rather than benefit them, it only harms them.”
Her political affiliations further fueled the controversy. Bardot was an ardent supporter of France’s far-right National Front party, backing candidates like Catherine Mégret and Marine Le Pen. According to The Associated Press, Bardot’s rhetoric frequently targeted immigrants and Muslims, with her warnings about the “Islamisation” of France cited in several court cases against her.
The backlash against Martin and Roan’s tributes was swift and fierce. Social media users, many of whom were previously unaware of the full extent of Bardot’s views, demanded accountability and transparency from public figures. The incident also sparked broader conversations about the responsibility of celebrities to research and acknowledge the complexities of those they publicly honor. As Paste Magazine observed, “Women can really do anything they set their minds to,” referencing Bardot’s simultaneous roles as a cultural icon and a figure of controversy.
Media coverage following Bardot’s death reflected this tension. Outlets like The New York Times and Vogue Magazine addressed her far-right views in their retrospectives. “Death often has a kind of flattening effect on legacy. It’s hard to talk about a celebrity like Bardot—someone who brought entertainment and joy to millions, yet also sowed hatred and bigotry—with the requisite amount of nuance. But it’s our collective responsibility not to let her legendary beauty and talent obscure the ugliness of her Islamophobia, sexism, and far-right apologia,” wrote Vogue in a pointed opinion piece.
For Chappell Roan, the Bardot episode is the latest in a series of high-profile online controversies. After rising to fame in 2024, Roan publicly set boundaries with her fans, stating on TikTok, “[I don’t give an expletive that] abuse and harassment and stalking is a normal thing to do [to famous people.] That does not make it okay.” She also faced backlash for refusing to endorse Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election, later clarifying her voting intentions. In March 2025, Roan landed in hot water again after saying on the Call Her Daddy podcast, “All of my friends who have kids are in hell.” Yet, as outlets like HuffPost and Fox News noted, Roan handled the Bardot controversy “swiftly and explicitly.”
Apple Martin, meanwhile, has largely avoided controversy in her young career, but her quick pivot on Bardot underscores the increasing scrutiny faced by public figures in the age of social media. The expectation is clear: tributes, even those made in good faith, must be weighed against the full scope of a subject’s legacy—warts and all.
As the dust settles, the Bardot tributes-turned-retractions serve as a cautionary tale for celebrities and fans alike. The legacy of a public figure, especially one as polarizing as Bardot, cannot be reduced to a single dimension. As coverage from Fox News, The Daily Mail, HuffPost, and Vogue makes clear, the conversation about Bardot’s impact is far from over. It’s a reminder that in the digital age, history is never as simple as it seems, and the line between adulation and accountability grows ever thinner.
