Brigitte Bardot's Biggest Scandals: How the Actress' Legacy Became Marred by Controversy Angela AndaloroDecember 30, 2025 at 2:28 AM 0 Hulton Archive/Getty; ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty Brigitte Bardot, circa 1960 (left) and in 2007 Brigitte Bardot rose to international fame with her role in And God Created Woman After two decades in acting, Bardot retired from acting in the 1970s and devoted her time to animal activism, during which she made headlines for sharing racist views The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announced the actress' death at 91 in a statement shared with the French news agency AF...
- - Brigitte Bardot's Biggest Scandals: How the Actress' Legacy Became Marred by Controversy
Angela AndaloroDecember 30, 2025 at 2:28 AM
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Hulton Archive/Getty; ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty
Brigitte Bardot, circa 1960 (left) and in 2007 -
Brigitte Bardot rose to international fame with her role in And God Created Woman
After two decades in acting, Bardot retired from acting in the 1970s and devoted her time to animal activism, during which she made headlines for sharing racist views
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announced the actress' death at 91 in a statement shared with the French news agency AFP
Brigitte Bardot has passed away, leaving behind a complicated legacy.
The actress became a legend in French film, rising to international fame with her role in 1956's And God Created Woman. In the years that followed, Bardot, who has died at age 91, became known for so much more than acting.
A career in activism, largely in support of animals, brought many to see Bardot in a different light. It also created a platform for some of her more troubling opinions. Bardot's continued time in the spotlight led to more revelations, including mental health complications that led to several suicide attempts throughout her life.
Bardot continued to make headlines in recent years as she faced legal troubles over racist and xenophobic comments.
Today, Bardot's legacy is arguably defined by the many scandals she was involved in. Here are some of the actress's biggest headline-making moments.
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Bardot inspired the phrase "sex kitten"
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Brigitte Bardot, circa 1960
Early in her career, Bardot's overt sexuality caused a stir. Bardot was born Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot in Paris in September 1934. Often referred to by her initials, B.B., Bardot's career began as a model, and she appeared on the cover of Elle in 1950 at the age of 15.
She was invited to audition for director Marc Allégret's film Les Lauriers sont coupés. While she did not get the part, it was at that audition that she met Roger Vadim, whom she would marry in 1952 when she was 18 and he was 24. He would later direct her in 1956 in And God Created Woman, her breakout role.
Bardot's performance in the film gave rise to the term "sex kitten," which then came into the public lexicon to describe the young actress, who some credited with sparking a sexual revolu
The young actress' infidelities made headlines
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Jean-Louis Trintignant and Brigitte Bardot
The success of And God Created Woman came with more controversy, as it was revealed that she and Vadim were divorcing after the film's release. The two split after Bardot had an affair with Jean-Louis Trintignant on the set of the film.
Bardot and Trintigant would see each other for two years before their relationship ended, due to another affair. Bardot began seeing musician Gilbert Bécaud before she and Trintigant split, though that relationship also did not last.
Bardot began a relationship with actor Jacques Charrier, her co-star from Babette Goes to War, in 1958, and they married in 1959. They welcomed a son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, in January 1960. The two divorced in 1962, in part because Bardot had an affair with Glenn Ford.
Her third marriage came in July 1966 to German millionaire Gunter Sachs. Just weeks into the marriage, Bardot reportedly started an affair with singer Mike Sarne. Bardot and Sachs divorced in October 1969.
In her 2018 memoir Larmes de combat, Bardot explained her penchant for finding her next suitor while still with her last, writing, "With each relationship, I would constantly go back in search of other loves when the present became lukewarm. I don't like the in-between, the less good. I have always sought passion. That is why I have often been unfaithful. And when passion was coming to an end, I would pack my bags."
She self-harmed during pregnancy and struggled in her relationship with her son
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Brigitte Bardot holds her baby Nicolas
Bardot had one son among her four marriages. She and Charrier welcomed their son Nicolas in Paris on Jan. 11, 1960.
"I'm not made to be a mother," Bardot wrote in her memoir 1990s' Initiales B.B. "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."
Other comments about her pregnancy compared her growing baby to a "cancerous tumor," with her 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."
Bardot reportedly tried to end her pregnancy through means available to her, such as punching herself in the stomach and begging doctors to prescribe her morphine, as abortion was illegal in France at the time. The actress would later admit to having had two abortions prior to her pregnancy with Nicolas, who sued her and her publisher for the comments in Initiales B.B. Thought they couldn't stop the publication of the comments, they were awarded £28,000 in damages, per The Independent.
While Bardot didn't raise her son, she did keep some relationship with him throughout her life, revealing in her later years that she promised her son she wouldn't publicly speak about him anymore.
She was fined by French courts for "inciting racial hatred" on several occasions
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Brigitte Bardot in 2001
In 1992, the activist married Bernard d'Ormale, a former adviser to French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, a controversial figure in French politics who was convicted of racism and inciting racial hatred at least six times, according to the AP.
In the years that followed, Bardot garnered controversy herself and was fined multiple times by the French government for inciting racial hatred. She criticized immigration in France in her 1999 book Le Carre de Pluton, writing, "My land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims."
For the comment, a French court fined her 30,000 francs in 2000.
She also spread homophobic commentary
JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty
Brigitte Bardot in 2003
In her 2003 book Un Cris dans le Silence, Bardot once again angered a community, as she dismissed the LGBTQ community as "fairground freaks" and cited them as part of the "destruction" of French culture.
In response to the backlash for her comments, Bardot asserted that she had gay friends and simply didn't appreciate that "modern gays" blamed their heterosexual counterparts for their struggles.
"Apart from my husband--who maybe will cross over one day as well--I am entirely surrounded by homos," Bardot's letter to Tribumove read, per The Advocate. "For years they have been my support, my friends, my adopted children, my confidants."
A judge told Bardot she was tired of the star's xenophobia
ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty
Brigitte Bardot in 2007
In 2008, Bardot was fined for a fifth time by a French court for inciting racial hatred against Muslims in France. While Bardot was lauded for her work to protect animals, she paired her passion for animal rights with hateful rhetoric toward Muslim communities. The actress wrote a letter in December 2006 to the then-Interior Minister (and later, President) Nicolas Sarkozy in which she criticized the Muslim festival of Aid el-Kebir, which is reportedly celebrated by slaughtering sheep.
In the letter, she wrote that France is "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."
The prosecutor in Bardot's case stated at the time that she was tired of charging the actress with offenses related to xenophobia, according to BBC News.
Bardot disparaged the #MeToo Movement
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Brigitte Bardot in 2007
In January 2018, Bardot made headlines when she called the #MeToo movement "hypocritical, ridiculous and uninteresting" in an interview with French magazine Paris Match.
"Many actresses flirt with producers to get a role. Then when they tell the story afterward, they say they have been harassed," she said at the time, according to The Guardian. "In actual fact, rather than benefit them, it only harms them."
"The vast majority are being hypocritical and ridiculous," Bardot added.
Bardot said she's never been a victim of sexual harassment and that she liked the attention she was given by her male colleagues: "I thought it was nice to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a pretty little ass. This kind of compliment is nice."
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Published: December 29, 2025 at 08:36PM on Source: RED MAG
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