Brigitte Bardot once ranked among the world’s best-known celebrities. She has since become a grandmother and built a full life beyond the spotlight. Her family story eventually came to include a granddaughter who followed a similar path, but the actress’s road from fame to family reconciliation was anything but simple.
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in France on September 28, 1934. She entered the modeling world at only 15 years old, opening the door to an extraordinary career. Her first ambition had been ballet, and while still a teenager she appeared on the cover of Elle. The exposure quickly attracted widespread attention. Bardot moved into acting during the 1950s and emerged as one of the defining sex symbols of Europe’s postwar generation. Her performance in And God Created Beauty in 1956 elevated her to major stardom. Although she had grown up in a prosperous family of industrialists, she remembered considering herself unattractive as a child and never imagining she would one day become an enduring symbol of beauty. Bardot later described herself as a properly raised young woman from a respectable household who eventually rejected that world and embraced a bohemian life.
Her first substantial English-language part placed her opposite Dirk Bogarde in Doctor at Sea. By the middle of the 1960s, she was pursuing a broader international breakthrough. The French actress appeared in her first Hollywood production in 1966, but Dear Brigitte failed to win over American moviegoers. Bardot’s blonde hair, striking complexion, full lips, and curving figure made her impossible to overlook, yet her attempts to succeed in Hollywood repeatedly disappointed at the box office. Expectations were high when she appeared with Sean Connery in the Western Shalako, but the 1968 release received a mixed response.
In 1973, Bardot stunned admirers by announcing that she was leaving acting. She remained a prominent and active figure in entertainment, but the pressure of celebrity was precisely what drove her away. She later explained that walking away from the glitter, wealth, attention, and constant expectation of being desired had been an act of self-preservation. Bardot said public fascination initially felt enjoyable, but soon became suffocating and destructive. Across her 20 years of film work, she recalled developing herpes whenever a new production began. After retiring, she withdrew from public life and became increasingly reclusive.
Bardot eventually found a new use for her fame. Some 13 years after ending her film career, she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and dedicated herself to animal welfare. Her concern for animals had developed by 1962, when she was only 28. Roger Vadim—the director of And God Created Beauty and her first husband—said Bardot had received little affection from her parents. When they began their relationship, he recalled, she wanted a dog rather than jewelry. Vadim believed she had always rejected fame and power, while the sincerity and innocence she saw in animals brought her comfort.
Her foundation has promoted animal rights and supported conservation initiatives over many years. Its work has included financing a wildlife hospital in Chile and helping create facilities for abused bears in Bulgaria, koalas in Australia, and elephants in Thailand. By the time Bardot was 88, her cultural legacy remained firmly established. Vogue included her among the most beautiful French actresses ever in 2020. The 88-year-old former screen star had influenced fashion through her distinctive hair and makeup, securing her reputation as one of the most recognizable faces, performers, and models associated with the 1950s and 1960s.
Reports have placed her home in La Madrague, a coastal community in France. Bardot is married to wealthy businessman Bernard d’Ormal. The couple wed in Norway on 16 August 1992. Even as mobility became more difficult, she remained an outspoken advocate for animals. Asked by Vogue what motivated her to get out of bed each morning, Bardot pointed to the suffering animals still endure. She acknowledged that walking and swimming had become hard for her, but said the many letters she received about cruelty reminded her that her own difficulties were small compared with theirs.
Bardot’s relationship with motherhood was far more painful. On January 11, 1960, she gave birth to Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, her son with actor Jacques Charrier, her second husband. She had long spoken openly about not wanting to become a mother. Bardot said she had not wished to bring another person into a world she already considered overcrowded and frightening. Looking back, she suggested that maternal feeling might be something a person can learn, although pregnancy and motherhood had felt like suffering to her at the time.
She addressed the experience in Initialed BB, her book released in 1996. In its pages, Bardot compared the pregnancy to carrying a tumor inside her body while waiting for the moment she could finally be free of it. She also recalled reacting with distress after the delivery and telling the midwives that she did not want to see the baby again. When Bardot and Jacques Charrier divorced in 1963, she allowed him to receive full custody and showed little interest in watching Nicolas grow up.
Her son consequently built a life about which his mother knew almost nothing. In 1984, Nicolas married Norwegian supermodel Anne-Line Bjerkan and later became the father of two children. Bardot was not invited to their wedding. Mother and son remained out of contact until 1996, when legal action forced their lives to intersect again. Nicolas said he felt shocked and blindsided after reading the intimate claims in Initialed B.B. He and his father sued Bardot for violating their privacy, with the second complaint concerning what was described as an invasion of Nicolas’s privacy even before birth. The court ordered Bardot to pay 150,000 francs to her former husband Jacques and 100,000 francs to her son.
Discussing the relationship in 2014, Bardot said having a son had not produced a powerful awakening of maternal instinct in her and insisted that this was not something she had chosen. Nicolas went on to make a full life in Norway with his daughters, Anna-Camilla and Thea-Josephine. A change finally came in 2009, when Bardot decided to rebuild contact with the son from whom she had been estranged. She later acknowledged that his childhood and their relationship had been painful for both of them.
Nicolas still lives in Norway, but he now visits Bardot in La Madrague about once a year. Sometimes he travels alone, while on other occasions he brings members of his family. Those visits have allowed Bardot to know her granddaughters and even her great-grandchild. She has said she now loves her son in her own particular way, noting that he does not physically resemble her and inherited much of his appearance from his father. After so many difficult years apart, Brigitte Bardot has finally formed a relationship with the son she once kept at a distance. Share this story with other admirers of the actress so they can learn more about her life.
