Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot was a French actress who became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and ’60s. In a number of movies, notably And God Created Woman, she broke contemporary film taboos against nudity and set box-office records in Europe and the United States. Bardot retired from acting in 1973 and subsequently became an outspoken animal rights activist. In 1986 she established an animal welfare organization, the Foundation Brigitte Bardot.

In her later years, Brigitte Bardot became a polarizing figure for a series of controversial remarks, some of which resulted in her being fined for inciting racial hatred. Notably, in 2004 Bardot was convicted for comments made about Muslims in her book Un Cri dans le silence (2003; “A Scream in the Silence”), in which she described them as “invaders, cruel and barbaric.” An outspoken animal rights activist, Bardot frequently criticized Muslim practices that involved the ritual killing of animals. In 2008 she was again convicted, this time for a letter to French politician Nicholas Sarkozy condemning Eid al-Adha, an Islamic festival that includes animal sacrifice. She wrote, “I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts.”

Bardot also drew criticism for homophobic remarks and for expressing opposition to interracial marriages and immigration. In 2018 she attracted attention after dismissing the Me Too movement as “hypocritical, ridiculous, and without interest.” During this time Bardot also supported right-wing politicians, notably backing the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in her unsuccessful presidential bids in 2012 and 2017.

With actor Jacques Charrier, Brigitte Bardot had a son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, in 1960. Bardot did not want to be a mother—at a press conference, she said that she would have “preferred to give birth to a little dog”—and when the couple divorced in 1962, Jacques Charrier was awarded custody of their son. In her memoir, Initiales B.B. (1996), Bardot made a number of controversial comments about motherhood and her son. She notably described her pregnancy as “a tumor growing inside me” and said that Nicolas was the “object of my misfortune.” Bardot also wrote that “I’m not adult enough—I know it’s horrible to have to admit that, but I’m not adult enough to take care of a child.” For a number of years, Bardot and her son had no contact, but by 2018 the two were reportedly visiting annually.