Paris, December 28, 2025 – Brigitte Bardot, one of France’s most iconic actresses, has died at the age of 91, leaving behind a complex legacy that included a fraught relationship with motherhood. The celebrated star, known for her captivating beauty and free spirit, experienced having a child as a personal tragedy, a burden she carried throughout her life.
A Shadow Over Stardom: Bardot’s Unwanted Motherhood
The French icon’s experience with pregnancy and raising a son was marked by regret and distance,a stark contrast to her public persona.
- Bardot was 26 years old when she gave birth to her only child, Nicolas Charrier, in 1960.
- She openly expressed her unhappiness about the pregnancy,describing the child as an unwelcome “tumor.”
- Bardot maintained a largely absent relationship with her son,leaving Jacques Charrier with sole custody after their divorce in 1963.
- Despite becoming a grandmother and great-grandmother, Bardot saw her son only once a year, and their families did not share a common language.
At 26, Brigitte Bardot was already an international sensation, an “incandescent star” whose every move was scrutinized. But behind the glamorous facade, she felt unprepared and unwilling to embrace motherhood. She described the growing life within her as “a tumor” and likened her rounded belly to “a coffin lid.” Her husband at the time, Jacques Charrier, desired a son, but Bardot did not share his enthusiasm. Fifteen years before the legalization of abortion in France with the Veil law, she felt trapped and unable to escape the situation.
“I wasn’t mature enough to be a mother. I needed to have parents, a lover who would guide me and protect me. I couldn’t see myself giving a child what I expected from others,” she later confided. The birth itself, which took place at their home on avenue Paul-Doumer in Paris, was a chaotic spectacle. Photographers,some disguised as doctors,lurked behind windows,invading her privacy and adding to the already immense pressure. “It was terrible. The hysteria around me. Madness,” she recalled.
Bardot felt compelled to take duty for “the object of my misfortune for life,” as she put it in her 1996 autobiography, Initiales BB: Mémoires. She even confessed she would have “preferred to give birth to a little dog.” This sentiment foreshadowed the emotional distance that would characterize her relationship with her son, Nicolas.
Following a suicide attempt nine months after Nicolas’s birth – involving barbiturates and self-inflicted cuts – Bardot’s feelings of resentment towards her son intensified. She rarely saw him, leaving Jacques Charrier with full custody. The couple divorced in 1963 when Nicolas was just three years old. Bardot remained a distant figure in his life, an “absent mother, mother never,” as one account described it.While she later became a grandmother twice and a great-grandmother three times, she only saw Nicolas once a year in france. his family resided in Norway and did not speak French, further complicating any potential connection.
What was Brigitte Bardot’s attitude towards becoming a mother? Bardot openly expressed her unhappiness and regret about her pregnancy, describing the child as an unwelcome burden and stating she wasn’t mature enough for motherhood.
