Of
Stefano Montefiori
The diva had sold almost all her assets to the Foundation that bears her name. Meanwhile, France is divided: for the left it should not be honored “because it is racist”
Only son Nicolas Charrier, 65, lives a quiet life in Norway with his former model wife Anne-Line Bjerkan, two daughters and three grandchildren. When he was three years old Brigitte Bardot divorced, and he grew up with his father Jacques. No contact with the mother until 1996, when she published an autobiography in which she evoked the rejection of motherhood in crude terms, the newborn “like a tumor”: he sued her and was compensated with 100 thousand francs. Then she managed to explain that refusal: «When he was born, in 1960, around me there was an atmosphere of hysteria, madness. The delivery room was set up in my house in Paris, I had photographers behind the windows, someone dressed up as a doctor. There was no intimacy. It was terrible… I associated the birth of my son with this trauma. And it is Nicolas who paid the consequences.” Over the years, relationships improved, Brigitte Bardot received visits from her son and grandchildren every year, “I’m a great-grandmother”, she said.
According to French law, Nicolas Charrier will inherit at least half of Brigitte Bardot’s fortune, but it will be very little because the actress got rid of almost all her assets when she was still alive, favoring the Foundation that bears her name and the battle in defense of animals.
«I gave my youth and my beauty to men, now I offer my wisdom and my experience to animals». To obtain the three million francs needed to create the Fondation Brigitte Bardot, in 1986 the actress opened a stall at the Saint-Tropez market and for two months sold everything: souvenirs, bracelets, necklaces, autographed photos, stage clothes, hats, the wedding dress from her marriage to Roger Vadim (her first husband), furniture, silverware and a guitar.
La Madrague, the famous villa in Saint-Tropez, purchased in 1958 for 24 million francs (more or less 450 thousand euros today), where Brigitte Bardot passed away at dawn on Sunday, has already been sold to the Foundation some time ago and could become a museum. The other residence in the South of France, La Garrigue, less known, should in turn pass to the Foundation and retain its function as a refuge as well as the country property of Bazoches, in the Paris region, estimated at 680 thousand euros and already transformed into a reception center for animals.
The most famous French actress in the history of cinema leaves a difficult legacy even in the memory that the country will retain of her. Eric Ciotti, leader of the right allied with Marine Le Pen, asked President Emmanuel Macron to organize a national tribute to Brigitte Bardot, similar to the one paid in 2017 to the singer Johnny Hallyday. “France has a duty to honor its Marianne,” says Ciotti, launching a petition that received ten thousand signatures in just a few hours. Hypothesis immediately rejected by the secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, who recalled how BB has been «condemned several times by justice for racism. It marked French cinema, but it also turned its back on republican values.” The funeral will be held on Wednesday 7 January in the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church in Saint-Tropez, followed by a “private and confidential burial”. Not in Madrague, as he seemed to have chosen some time ago, but in the cemetery of Saint-Tropez, where his parents already rest.
December 30, 2025
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