NEED TO KNOW
- Brigitte Bardot gave birth to son, Nicolas, in 1960.
- Brigitte often spoke about how she didn’t want to become a mother and was estranged from Nicolas.
- The French actress passed away on December 28, aged 91.
Brigitte Bardot’s legacy as a cultural icon is undisputed.
A trailblazing model, actress, and singer, she became one of the most recognisable women of the 20th century.
But motherhood was never a role she wanted- a reality that shaped her complicated relationship with her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier.
Who is Brigitte Bardot?
Born 28 September 1934, Bardot’s breakthrough was And God Created Woman, written and directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim and released in late 1956.
During her career, which kicked off in the 1950s, Brigitte Bardot appeared in around 50 movies and became one of the most prominent style icons of all time.
Her signature blonde hair, voluptuous figure and sultry looks helped revolutionise the way sexuality was portrayed in films, and despite retiring from acting in the 1970s, her legacy and appeal have endured.
The French actress passed away on December 28, aged 91.
When did Brigitte Bardot become a mother?
Nicolas-Jacques Charrier was born on January 11, 1960, in Paris. According to a birth announcement published by The New York Times, Bardot gave birth at home in the couple’s apartment, and her son weighed 7 lbs.
In her memoir, Bardot described her pregnancy in stark terms, writing, “I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid.”
Did Brigitte Bardot ever want to be a mother?
Bardot was candid about her feelings long before public discussions of maternal ambivalence were common. In her 1990 memoir Initiales B.B., she wrote, “I’m not made to be a mother. 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.”
Despite her reservations, Bardot and her then-husband, actor Jacques Charrier, welcomed a son in 1960. Her honesty, often brutal and unfiltered, would later place her at the centre of intense controversy.
Who raised Nicolas after Brigitte Bardot’s divorce?
Bardot and Charrier divorced in 1962, when Nicolas was still a toddler. Charrier retained custody, and Nicolas was primarily raised by his paternal grandparents.
Brigitte later explained her absence by saying, “I didn’t bring up Nicolas because I needed support, roots. I couldn’t be Nicolas’ roots because I was completely uprooted, unbalanced, lost in that crazy world.”
Why did Nicolas try to block Brigitte Bardot’s memoir?
Ahead of the publication of Initiales B.B., Nicolas and his father attempted to prevent sections of the book from being released. Their efforts were unsuccessful, and the memoir’s most discussed passages included Bardot referring to Nicolas as the “object of my misfortune.”
The book also detailed deeply personal experiences from Bardot’s life, including prior abortions and the pressures she felt to abandon her career. “I wanted to free myself- in every sense of the word,” she wrote, adding that she felt imprisoned by fame, marriage, and motherhood.
Did Nicolas and Jacques Charrier take legal action?
Yes. Following the memoir’s release in 1997, Charrier and Nicolas sued Bardot for invasion of privacy. Among the claims were Bardot’s allegations of abuse and her descriptions of pregnancy, which a Paris court later ruled had crossed legal boundaries.
Brigitte was ordered to pay approximately $40,000 in damages.
That same year, Charrier published his own account, My Response to Brigitte Bardot. Defending both himself and his son, he said, “By giving my version of the facts, I’m doing her a big favour… The reality of her love for Nicolas, confirmed by the letters I kept, is much more to her credit than the horrors she wrote.”
Charrier passed away in 2025.
Did Brigitte Bardot and Nicolas ever reconnect?
The mother and son had a tumultuous relationship, and Bardot was not invited to Nicolas-Jacques’ wedding in 1984.
However, despite years of distance, Brigitte and her son did have limited contact later in life. In 1992, Bardot married businessman Bernard d’Ormale in Norway, near where Nicolas and his family were living.
“Two weeks after we met, Brigitte phoned Nicolas because she wanted him to meet me,” d’Ormale told PEOPLE in 1992. “Just before we left, she said, ‘Why don’t we get married while we are there?’ So we did.”
Why did Brigitte Bardot stop speaking about her son?
In a 2024 interview with Paris Match, Bardot revealed that she made a promise to Nicolas to no longer discuss him publicly. According to Le Point, she said the decision came out of respect for his wishes.
Through Nicolas, Bardot became both a grandmother and a great-grandmother- a quieter legacy far removed from the spotlight that defined much of her life.
Why was Brigitte Bardot controversial?
In her later years, Bardot faced criticism for her right-wing beliefs, particularly around Muslim immigration into France.
She also received backlash during the #MeToo movement for saying that some of the victims of sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical and ridiculous” and accused them of “playing the part” and “teasing” producers in order to secure acting roles.
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