Among the mourners at Brigitte Bardot’s funeral, a little blonde girl in a navy velvet hat and smart coat stood out amongst the hundreds who had gathered to pay their respects.
The youngster is the late film icon’s great-granddaughter and bears something of a resemblance to the French film legend who died in December aged 91.
Walking to the service at the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church in Saint-Tropez hand in hand with her mother Anna Charrier Bjerkan, she was flanked by an older sister and brother – all Brigitte’s great-grandchildren.
Also present was Anna’s sister Thea Charrier and their father Nicolas Charrier, 65, Brigitte’s only son.
The show of family unity was particularly poignant given the fraught relationship between Brigitte and Nicolas, who were estranged for decades throughout her life.
After declaring she would rather have ‘given birth to a dog’, she distanced herself from Nicolas after her divorce from his father Jacques Charrier and left his upbringing to her ex-husband’s grandparents.
Although they later reconciled, she admitted that she’d not had much contact with Nicolas’s two daughters and ‘three little Norwegian great-grandchildren who don’t speak French’.
Despite the troubles of the past, the family were united in grief and ensured that even the very youngest members had the opportunity to say goodbye to the great-grandmother they barely knew.
Anna Charrier (Brigitte Bardot’s granddaughter) and her children arrive at Brigitte Bardot’s funeral
Brigitte Bardot’s son Nicolas-Jacques Charrier (L) walks in the cortege behind the hearse transporting the coffin of his mother
Anna Charrier and her daughter arrive at Brigitte Bardot’s funeral
Bardot’s relationship with son Nicolas
Brigitte gave birth to her son Nicolas-Jacques in 1960, while married to actor Jacques Charrier with whom she starred in the film ‘Babette Goes to War’.
At the time, she expressed that the pregnancy was the greatest tragedy, and she never accepted motherhood.
‘I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid,’ she wrote in her memoir.
Bardot said she previously had two dangerous abortions before giving birth to Nicholas, who she described as the ‘object of my misfortune’ in her book.
After her divorce from Jacques in 1962, Nicolas did not see his mother for decades due to her harsh remarks.
He was brought up by his paternal grandparents, with the actress later revealing in an interview that she couldn’t raise him because she needed ‘support’ and ‘roots’, adding that she was ‘uprooted, unbalanced, lost in that crazy world’.
She was also quoted as saying she would have rather given birth to a ‘little dog’ than her son.
Nicolas later sued the actress for defamatory statements and non-payment of alimony.
Jaques Charrier wrote a book in 1997, claiming to help ‘rehabilitate’ Bardot’s image, saying: ‘In a way, I rehabilitate her. The reality of her love for Nicolas, confirmed by the letters I kept, is much more to her credit than the horrors she wrote,’ according to The Telegraph.
In the final years of her life, Brigitte appeared to change her approach towards the rift between her and her only child.
In a 2018 interview with Var-Matin, Bardot suggested her relationship with her son had improved, saying: ‘We speak regularly. Living in Norway, he visits me once a year at La Madrague, alone or accompanied by his family, his wife, and my granddaughters.’
She also described a lingering affection for Nicolas, saying: ‘I love him in a special way. And he loves me too. He looks a bit like me. Physically, he inherited a lot from his father.’
In an interview with Paris Match in 2024 she said she promised her son to never speak about him in an interview.
Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Charrier and their son Nicolas
Brigitte Bardot and her son Nicolas
Brigitte Bardot and her son Nicolas
Nicolas attending his mother’s funeral
Distanced from granddaughters Anna and Thea
The sisters were raised in Norway by Nicolas, after he settled there with his wife, Norwegian model Anne-Line Bjerkan, who he married in 1984.
Bardot was reportedly not invited to the wedding.
The family led a largely private life, and Bardot met her granddaughters only once when they were young, during a family gathering arranged by her husband Bernard d’Ormale in 1992.
Bardot later acknowledged that she had not played an active role in her granddaughters’ lives.
‘I admit that I wasn’t a good grandmother. My granddaughters live in Norway with their father. They don’t speak French and we don’t have the opportunity to see each other. I always say what I think, and I never believed in blood relations,’ she said in remarks reported by TF1.
She added that she did not ‘hold them in my arms’ or ‘see them grow up’.
According to French media, in 2014 Bardot was informed that she had become a great-grandmother after Anna gave birth to a daughter.
Bardot’s agent reportedly said: ‘Recently, Nicolas called his mother on the phone and told her that she became a great-grandmother.’
He added that Bardot had not met the baby but described the child as ‘very cute, very pretty’ after seeing photographs.
However, it seems Bardot did have a chance to meet her great-grandchildren at least once.
Speaking to Le Point last year, the late film star said: ‘Yes, I’m the great-grandmother of three little Norwegian children who don’t speak French and whom I rarely see.’
The youngest of the great-grandchildren, with a rounded face and blonde hair, has drawn comparisons to Brigitte herself.
Anne-Line Bjerkan, wife of Nicolas-Jacques Charrier (right), and Thea Charrier Bjerkan arrive to attend the funeral service for Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot’s granddaughter Anna Charrier (L) arrives at Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church, for the funeral of Brigitte Bardot
Bardot’s funeral took place at the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church, with a low-key service set to reflect her lifelong love of animals as well as her far-right political views.
French far-Right leader Marine Le Pen was among the VIPs pictured arriving for the service.
French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend, however, after being snubbed by Bardot’s family.
In an interview with Le Parisiene, Bernard d’Ormale, who was married to the movie star for over 30 years, said he declined the government’s offer of a national commemoration for his wife.
He said Bardot had no time for Macron’s administration and that she always stuck to her political principles.
The film star was revealed to have died of cancer for which she had undergone several operations.
Bardot was reclusive in her final years, preferring to remain out of the spotlight at her secluded and very private property in Saint Tropez.
