Cinema icon Brigitte Bardot is set to be buried by the sea in the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez, it emerged today.
The actress, who became a symbol of 1950s and 60s France, made her home in the resort where she said she found solace among animals and dedicated her life to their welfare.
The 91-year-old died at her home near St Tropez ‘at dawn’ on Sunday morning, following months of illness.
A Roman Catholic service is expected to be held at Notre Dame de la Garrigue, the private chapel on the estate she bought more than 70 years ago.
This was just after she became internationally famous after starring in ‘And God Created Woman’ – the 1956 film directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.
She initially told French weekly Paris Match in 2024 that she wanted to be buried in her garden, but the local authorities say no request for that has been made.
A local government source in St Tropez said on Monday: ‘Brigitte indicated that she wanted La Madrague to be her final resting place.
‘Crowds of people used to file past the estate trying to catch a glimpse of her, and she wanted it to become a museum.
Brigitte Bardot is set to be buried by the sea in the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez, it emerged today
A local government source said the film legend wanted to be buried at La Madrague, her home in St Tropez, where many of her former pets are buried
Throughout her illustrious career, Bardot made 45 films and recorded several songs
‘The estate contains a fisherman’s cottage, which will be left as it was, because Brigitte enjoyed some of her happiest times there.
‘Lots of her former pets are buried around the estate, and Brigitte wants to be with them all.’
In an interview in 2018, Ms Bardot herself said: ‘I embrace the pilgrimage aspect, because I will be buried in the garden. I chose a small spot, close to the sea.
‘The formalities have been completed. A specific location has been approved by the authorities, out of sight but near the graves in my pet cemetery.’Roger Vadim, who died in 2000, is also buried in St Tropez.
On Monday, Ms Bardot’s animal charity revealed that she died at dawn on Sunday, with her fourth husband, Bernard d’Ormale, by her side.
A statement by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation said she ‘took her last breath at 6am’.
‘Bernard d’Ormale, her husband, who was with her until the very end, was by her side when she passed away.
‘He could hear her breathing normally. And then, at 5:55 a.m., she whispered her little word of love to him, ‘pew pew.’ And that was it’.
Beyond a private funeral in St Tropez, there could be a national tribute to Ms Bardot, French government sources indicated.
No details about the cause of Ms Bardot’s death have yet been released.
In 1984, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused chemotherapy, opting for radiation treatment instead, successfully going into remission in 1986.
She also suffered from severe arthritis, which often required her to use walking sticks.
Ms Bardot made 45 films in all and recorded 70 songs as a pop singer before retiring from public life in 1973.
Bardot, who is said to have taken her last breath at 6am, had been ill in a hospital in Toulon
Mourners gather outside La Madrague with their animals to pay their respects to Bardot
She had just released her latest book, Mon BBcédaire, which is a play on her B.B. nickname.
The memoir retells her life in an A to Z, listing anecdotes, thoughts, feelings, and struggles.
Her far-Right politics became increasingly controversial, and she was fined six times for inciting racial hatred, particularly against immigrants and Muslims, and residents of the French overseas territory of Réunion, whom she called ‘degenerate savages’.
Ms Bardot had a long history of supporting France’s Front National (FN) rally party, which has since been renamed the National Rally.
Ms Bardot was married four times – to Vadim between 1952 and 1957, Jacques Charrier between 1959 and 1962, Gunter Sachs (1966-1969), and former Jean Marie Le Pen adviser, Mr D’Ormale, whom she married in 1992.
She also had a number of other high-profile relationships, including with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Serge Gainsbourg.
Ms Bardot had one son, Nicholas-Jacques Charrier, with Jacques Charrier.
