The firefighters would have intervened at the home of Brigitte Bardot this Wednesday morning to help the 88-year-old actress, who is suffering from breathing difficulties.
The firefighters intervened at the home of Brigitte Bardot, in Saint-Tropez, this Wednesday, July 19, 2023. According to information from BFM TV confirmed by the local press, the 88-year-old actress was taken care of for respiratory problems.
At the microphone of Var-Matin, her husband Bernard d’Ormale brought reassuring news. He thus reveals that his wife has experienced “respiratory wanderings” “stronger than usual” without causing any discomfort, he assures. The firefighters stayed for a few moments to monitor his state of health and that the problem was then resolved. Brigitte Bardot’s husband assures that “like all people of a certain age, she can no longer bear the heat.”
Brigitte Bardot had confirmed that she had already suffered from discomfort in January 2023. Information which was then revealed in May by France Dimanche, which then claimed that the actress had been placed in intensive care for “serious respiratory failure”.
The movie star quickly denied this information in a letter posted on his Twitter account: “I want to reassure everyone. I’m doing very well. The press caused a scandal with an illness that happened to me in January and whose we’re making a big fuss today.”
Biography of Brigitte Bardot – Born September 28, 1934 in Paris, the French actress Brigitte Bardot made an impression from the 1950s and 1960s. Having become a sex symbol, she was the incarnation of the post-war free woman and also a devoted activist for the animal cause, becoming a role model for many young women. However, she is gradually becoming a controversial figure, through her positions. While she’s been convicted five times for inciting hatred over comments about immigration, Islam or homosexuality, her popularity won’t be affected that much.
Brigitte Bardot, born September 28, 1934, in Paris, comes from a highly bourgeois family. Her father owns Usines Bardot and her mother is an artist. She suffers from amblyopia which prevents her from seeing well in her left eye. During her childhood, she was raised in a rigid Catholic upbringing and studied at the Institut de la Tour in Paris. She has a younger sister, Marie-Jeanne, called Mijanou, from whom she suffers from being in the shadows. Passionate about classical dance, she entered the Paris Conservatory in 1949. The same year, she was hired by Hélène Lazareff (founder of “Elle”) and introduced “junior” fashion.
Director Marc Allégret discovered her this way, thanks to a photo appearing in the magazine’s May 8, 1950 issue. One of her grandfathers supports her in her project to become an actress, unlike her parents. It is also thanks to the director that she meets Roger Vadim, then his assistant. They fall in love but Bardot’s parents oppose this union. Filled with great sadness, she attempts suicide. Her parents find her in time and she convinces her father to accept her marriage to Vadim, he accepts but only when she turns 18.
The film with Allégret is ultimately not made. However, director Jean Boyer offered Brigitte Bardot a role in his film “Le Trou normand”, alongside Bourvil. Brigitte Bardot then plays in “Manina, the girl without veils” by Willy Rozier. Then, she took her first steps on stage thanks to André Barsacq and Dany Robin in the play “L’invitation au château” by Jean Anouilh, at the Théâtre de l’Atelier.
Without experience, Brigitte Bardot judged herself severely at the time, but Anouilh reassured her and the reviews were good. Subsequently, she obtained a role in “Si Versailles m’tait conté …” by Sacha Guitry in 1954 and went to tour Italy, where she had a role in “Hélène de Troie” by Robert Wise. She returned to France and played a small role in “Les grandes Manoeuvres” alongside Gérard Philipe and Michèle Morgan in 1955, by René Clair.
Brigitte Bardot experiences a commercial failure with the film “En effleurant la marguerite” by Marc Allégret. Finally, she returned to Rome for a while to shoot in “Les Weeks-ends de Néron”.
In 1956, Brigitte Bardot landed the lead role in Roger Vadim’s film “And God…created woman”. Thanks to this film, she accesses the status of sex symbol and becomes a legend in the world of cinema. Her role is that of a free woman, of her time and who has no taboos. When it was released, some scenes were censored and the results were unconvincing for French audiences. On the other hand, he made a triumph in the United States and subsequently obtained success in France.
Proposals are pouring in for Bardot following this cult film, which allows her to chain successes, and also to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II. The actress turns in “Une Parisienne” by Michel Boisrond, “Les Jewelers of the moonlight” by Roger Vadim and “In case of misfortune” by Claude Autant-Lara. For the latter, she plays alongside Jean Gabin and Edwige Feuillère. Legend has it that Brigitte Bardot will be so impressed to play with these great actors that she will forget her text. Jean Gabin will then voluntarily make a mistake in a hold to relax her and free her game.
In 1958, Brigitte Bardot was the highest paid actress in French cinema. In 1959, she launched the fashion for long blond hair, checkered gingham and ballet flats, thanks to the success of the film “Babette s’en va-t-en guerre”. Raoul Levy and Henri-Georges Clouzot offer him the film “The Truth”. She accepts but the filming proves to be very difficult, Clouzot’s methods being particularly harsh. In her book “Initiales B.B.: memoirs”, Brigitte Bardot reveals in particular that the director gave her two powerful sleeping pills, making her believe it was aspirin, to play a scene. She will wake up after 48 hours, without finding the scene excellent. Clouzot will put her in condition every day in a cruel atmosphere, which will cause her to be so depressed that her mother will send her to Menton, with her friend Mercedes.
Thereafter, Brigitte Bardot went on to film without much enthusiasm: “Private Life” by Louis Malle, “The Rest of the Warrior” by Roger Vadim, “The Contempt” by Jean-Luc Godard and an appearance in a film that pays homage to him. “Dear Bridget”. In 1965, she shot the western “Viva Maria!” by Louis Malle, with Jeanne Moreau. Filmed in Mexico, the project forces him to do a big and long promotion that ends up eclipsing his partner. The film was nevertheless a success and received good reviews.
Brigitte Bardot then refuses to be a James Bond girl in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and also rejects, at first, the scenario of “Shalako” by Edward Dmytryk, with Sean Connery. Having little interest in the project, she ends up following the advice of her agent. But this time, the film is a failure.
After playing in Jean Aurel’s “Les Femmes” and Michel Deville’s “The Bear and the Doll”, Brigitte Bardot did not receive many offers and therefore agreed to shoot in “Les Novices”, alongside Annie Girardot. She then plays with Lino Ventura in “Boulevard du rhum” by Robert Enrico then with Claudia Cardinale in “Les Pétroleuses”. Both films are successful, but the star is indifferent to them. In the continuity of “And God… created woman”, Roger Vadim offers him “Don Juan 73”. Not liking the film, she plays it reluctantly. In 1973, Nina Companeez’s “The very good and very joyful story of Colinot pencil case” was her last film. It is with this one that she decides to stop the cinema definitively.
Brigitte Bardot started singing in 1962. One of her most famous songs when she started out was “La Madrague”. Written by Jean-Max Rivière and composed by Gérard Bourgeois, it is inspired by the property of the same name of the actress, which is located in Saint-Tropez.
Bardot performed it for the first time on French television in the program “Le Palmarès des chansons – Spécial Dalida”, on June 8, 1967. The song also has a clip, which was shot on his property. The song was covered in particular by Laurent Voulzy in his album “La Septième Vague” in 2006, by Camélia Jordana in 2009 in the show “Nouvelle Star” and by Angèle in 2018.
In 1967-1968, Brigitte Bardot collaborated in music with Serge Gainsbourg. First linked by an artistic complicity, their collaboration turns into a relationship, the actress becoming a true muse for the singer. They recorded several songs together: “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, “Comic strip”, “Everybody Loves My Baby” and “Bonnie and Clyde”.
Married at the time to Gunter Sachs, Bardot does not want her extramarital affair with Gainsbourg to trigger a worldwide scandal. She therefore asks the artist not to release the song “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, but rather “Bonnie and Clyde”. “Initials B.B”, the song dedicated to him by Gainsbourg, marks their separation.
After ending her acting career, Brigitte Bardot devoted herself entirely to the cause of animals. She also began before the end of her career, in 1964, by revolting against chisel hammering, used to slaughter animals. This is where the “pistol of Brigitte Bardot” appears, which allows the instantaneous death of the animal, without it feeling pain.
Brigitte Bardot also became spokesperson for the SPA and, from 1976, began a major international campaign to denounce the seal hunt, the main fight she would lead throughout her life. She disputes the method used to kill them, that is to say a blow with a club, then their cutting up, sometimes still alive. His fight for seals is not in vain, since on March 15, 1977, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing banned the import of sealskins into France.
On March 20, 1977, Brigitte Bardot protested against Canada, denouncing the hunting of seal pups for their fur, then on March 28, 1983, the importation of the skins and furs of harp seal pups and hooded seal pups was prohibited by the European Economic Community, after the intervention of the actress at the Council of Europe. Thus the number of seals slaughtered fell from 200,000 in 1981 to 20,000 in 1985.
The former actress revolted in March 1980 against the conditions for slaughtering horses and asked the French not to eat them anymore, since France is the second largest consumer in Europe.
It was in 1986 that Brigitte Bardot created the “Brigitte Bardot Foundation” in Saint-Tropez. To do this, she sells her personal effects, jewelry, dresses, photos and autographed posters from when she was a star, so that her foundation is recognized as being of public utility. Then the struggles of the foundation are defined: captivity of wild animals, abandonment of pets, animal experiments, animal fights, transport of animals to butchery, seal hunting, whaling, poaching, abuse of hunting , hippophagy and fur.
Its foundation growing in importance, it quickly moved to Paris. Regarding her foundation and her fight, Bardot admits that she must include politics, in order to meet any head of state and minister who can help her. She also founded an 8 hectare refuge in the Eure thanks to donations. In 2010, his foundation reached 60,000 donors.
In 1993, the Humane Society of the United States created the “Brigitte Bardot International Award” in Hollywood, which rewards the best non-American animal reportage. In 1994, Brigitte Bardot asked Jean-Paul Gaultier to stop using fur, and did the same for Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve. In 1996, she convinced the Minister of Agriculture Philippe Vasseur to ban the caudectomy of horses (tail cutting).
In 2001, Brigitte Bardot was awarded the Peta Humanitarian Award by the PETA association, for her action in defense of animals. In 2002, she boycotted South Korean products, in order to protest against the consumption of dog and cat meat in South Korea. Moreover, on the same subject, in 2003 and 2006, a ban on the import and trade of dog and cat skins was introduced in France. This was followed by the ban on the import, export, sale and production of dog and cat skins by the European Union in 2007. Brigitte Bardot was also supported at the time by Jacques Chirac who seized the European Commission. Thus, in 2009, the import, export, transit and sale of products from the seal hunt are prohibited.
Brigitte Bardot also attacked Canadian Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette and American politician Sarah Palin for encouraging the hunting of certain animals. She also threatened to take Russian nationality if the pardon of two elephants suffering from tuberculosis from the Parc de la Tête d’Or in Lyon was not granted.
In February 2019, Brigitte Bardot published a letter written to the President of the Republic questioning him on his “inaction”. The president of the foundation that bears her name and which defends animal rights urges Emmanuel Macron to commit more firmly to this cause: “Today, I ask you to start Marching for animals […] the French do not understand your inaction”.
In this letter, Brigitte Bardot announces herself “more than disappointed” by the “immobility” of the Head of State. It refers to images shot in a slaughterhouse in Rodez in which we can see the reality of the killing of cattle without prior stunning. “Mr. President, it is no longer time to procrastinate on the issue, to pass the buck indefinitely, look at the images that we are unveiling today, they are scandalous, shocking, unworthy and unacceptable for a country like France who claims to be civilized”.
Although an icon of the 60s and popular for her fight for animals, Brigitte Bardot has also been the subject of controversy because of some of her opinions, concerning Islam in France, interbreeding, immigration , the ritual slaughter of animals and homosexuality. She has also been sentenced to fines on several occasions for incitement to racial hatred.
“My country, France, my homeland, my land, is once again invaded, with the blessing of our successive governments, by a foreign overpopulation, in particular Muslims, to whom we pledge allegiance. From this Islamic overflow, we must suffer against our will, all the traditions. Year after year, we see mosques flourish all over France while our church steeples are silent for lack of priests. […] Will I be forced to flee my country which has become bloody land to expatriate me?”, she wrote in 1996 in a free forum relayed in the press, causing an outcry from anti-racist associations. She continues to castigate this religion in her book “A cry in silence”, released in 2003, saying in particular “against the Islamization of France”. She will be fined 5,000 euros.
In this same book, Brigitte Bardot will also give her opinion on reality TV, politicians, fast food, but also transgender or homosexuality, with the same sulphurous tone. “Some homosexuals have always had a more subtle taste and talent, a class, a stature, an intelligence, a spirit, an aestheticism that differentiated them from ordinary mortals until it all degenerated into low-level fags, trannys of all hairs, fairground phenomena, sadly stimulated in this decadence by the lifting of prohibitions which stemmed extreme excesses”, can we read. She will nevertheless defend herself from being homophobic, qualifying homosexuals as her “lifelong friends”.
On women, Brigitte Bardot believes that they cannot have places of power, in particular because they have nothing to do there, but that their power resides in their bodies and what they do with them.
As for politics, Bardot defines herself as “conservative” and stresses that she is a “Frenchwoman of distant stock and proud of it”. Regarding her political orientation, she declared in 2018 in Le Monde: “I judge politicians by the yardstick of what they propose for the animal cause. […] I had an insane hope when the National Front has made concrete proposals to reduce animal suffering. […] If tomorrow a communist takes up the proposals of my foundation, I applaud and I vote. But I will no longer give my support to anyone!”. It is considered all the same as linked to the National Front by its proximity to this Party.
Brigitte Bardot will also make controversial remarks about illegal immigrants and interbreeding. In March 2019, she describes in an open letter the people of Reunion as “population of degenerates” because of their treatment of animals.
Brigitte Bardot has also displayed her closeness to the yellow vests in recent years. On November 28, 2018, a few days after the start of the yellow vests crisis, she posted on Twitter a photograph of herself, thumbs up and wearing the vest that had become a symbol of protest. The image was soberly captioned “With you!” At his feet, one of his dogs was also dressed in a yellow vest for the occasion.
Brigitte Bardot will also be received on February 17, 2019, during a debate of the protesters in Fréjus, in the Var. At the microphone of L’Obs, she will judge that the members of the yellow vests had “a lot of courage” and will explain that she wanted to make them above all “pleasure”. Aged 84 during the social crisis, Brigitte Bardot will speak for a few seconds to call on the “yellow vests” to continue the movement. “Don’t give up! Don’t give up! I’ve got your back!”
At 18, Brigitte Bardot married Roger Vadim on December 21, 1952. However, during the filming of “And God…created woman”, she fell in love with her partner Jean-Louis Trintignant. Each leaves their respective partner, then Trintignant leaves Bardot, thinking she has cheated on him. He was then credited with an affair with Gilbert Bécaud and then Sacha Distel.
On the film “Babette goes to war”, she meets the actor Jacques Charrier and marries him on June 18, 1959. On the set of the film “La Vérité”, she begins a relationship with the actor Sami Frey. She divorced Jacques Charrier on January 30, 1963, but Sami Frey ended their relationship in the summer of the same year. After an adventure with Brazilian musician Bob Zagury, she married Gunter Sachs on July 14, 1966. But the couple had trouble getting along, Sachs traveled a lot.
Infatuated with a “mad love” for Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot will begin an extra-marital relationship with him. Relationship that ends when she leaves for Spain for the filming of the film “Shalako”. In the meantime, she divorced Gunter Sachs in 1969. Brigitte Bardot then had relationships with Patrick Gilles, Christian Kalt, Laurent Vergez, Mirko Brozek and Allain Bougrain-Dubourg. In 1992, she met the industrialist Bernard d’Ormale, political adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen. They married on August 16, 1992.
Brigitte Bardot had a son, Nicolas Charrier, born on January 11, 1960 from her union with actor and producer Jacques Charrier. About this child, the actress will have particularly severe remarks. In her autobiography “Initiales B.B”, published in 1996 by Grasset, she described her pregnancy in particularly disturbing terms: “It was like a tumor that had fed on me, that I had carried in my swollen flesh, waiting only for the blessed moment when they would finally get rid of me”. The birth of his son will not be depicted in a more temperate way: “The nightmare reached its climax, I had to assume for life the object of my misfortune”.
After the release of the book, Nicolas Charrier will bring a lawsuit against his mother for “attack on intrauterine intimacy” and will win 100,000 francs in compensation. Brigitte Bardot will then declare, in the documentary “And Brigitte created Bardot”, that it was his father who had influenced him to turn against her.
A symbol of sexual liberation in the 1960s, Brigitte Bardot actually never wanted to be a mother, finding it “scary”. During her relationship with Roger Vadim, she fell pregnant twice, deciding to have an abortion each time. But the second operation will be marked by serious complications, with hemorrhage and cardiac arrest. It is this trauma that will push her to keep the child of her second husband.
Brigitte Bardot has made two suicide attempts. First when her parents refused her marriage to Roger Vadim, then a second, during which she was close to death. On September 28, 1960, her 26th birthday, she preferred to stay alone at home. She drinks a lot of champagne and at the same time swallows a large number of Immenoctal tablets.
Brigitte Bardot then wanders into the surrounding countryside, settles in a sheepfold and opens her veins, surrounded by sheep. It is a child who discovers it. Taken to the hospital by an ambulance, she is harassed by the paparazzi who disrupt her transfer. This suicide attempt will make headlines. Brigitte Bardot will wake up 48 hours later and will be followed by psychiatrists. She will spend her convalescence in Saint-Tropez, with her mother, before resuming her activity to honor her contracts.
In 1984, Brigitte Bardot discovers that she has breast cancer. Claiming it’s fate, she refuses to seek treatment. It is thanks to the influence of her friend Marina Vlady that she begins treatment and is finally cured.
She will return to this cancer in the columns of Paris Match in January 2018: “I was all alone and I had decided to do only radiotherapy, and not this terrible chemo, so as not to lose my hair. It destroys the evil but also the good and you come out of it devastated. I see people who, after this ordeal, are rags. I would never want to go through this. This disease has forced me to come face to face with myself. And now, if I sometimes like solitude, I cannot nevertheless live alone”.
Speculation about the health of Brigitte Bardot, the famous actress and female icon of the 1960s, is rife. The people press in particular has seized on this affair, speculating on the state of health of the former muse of Roger Vadim and Serge Gainsbourg. However, on May 3, 2023, Brigitte Bardot wanted to reassure her fans by posting a handwritten message on her Twitter account: “I want to reassure everyone, I’m doing very well”, she simply wrote.
The 88-year-old star also slammed the press for making a scandal of her feeling unwell in January but now fully recovered. She insisted that she had not lost any of her faculties and took as proof an open letter sent to Macronie three days ago, thus demonstrating her determination and her thirst to commit to the causes that dear to him.