French actress Brigitte Bardot passed away on December 28, aged 91, leaving behind her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, and her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, with whom she shared a tense relationship over the years.
The Girl in the Bikini star, who had suffered from several health issues before passing away in her home in southern France, lived a life filled with controversy.
One of Brigitte’s most controversial moments came when she shared in her 1995 memoir, Initiales B.B., that she never wanted to become a mother, a comment that would create further distance from her son.
Join us as we explore Brigitte’s contentious relationship with her only child, Nicolas.
Nicolas’ arrival
© Getty ImagesBrigitte maintained in her memoir that she never intended to welcome a child. “I’m not made to be a mother,” she wrote. “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.” Nevertheless, she welcomed baby Nicolas-Jacques Charrier in 1960 with her then-husband, Jacques Charrier.
The French star shared that pregnancy was a horrible experience for her. “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 gave birth inside her Parisian apartment.
A fractured childhood
© Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesNicolas was not raised by his mother; instead, he went to live with his paternal grandparents after his parents divorced in 1962.
“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,” she wrote in her memoir.
Brigitte’s controversial memoir
© Corbis via Getty ImagesNicolas, who preferred to lead a quiet life in adulthood, was thrust back into the spotlight in 1995 when Initiales B.B. was released, which detailed Brigitte’s honest thoughts about motherhood.
In the book, she likened her growing son to a “tumor” during pregnancy, and later wrote that he was the “object of my misfortune”. Nicolas and Jacques attempted to sue Brigitte for invasion of privacy, for which she was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines to the pair.
© Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesHer ex-husband, Jacques, then wrote his own book, My Response to Brigitte Bardot, in 1997, and shared his side of the story of their time together.
“By giving my version of the facts, I’m doing her a big favour,” he said, per The Telegraph. “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.”
A quiet life
© Getty ImagesNicolas moved far away from the spotlight in his adult years and lived in Norway, where he started a family with his wife, model Anne-Line Bjerkan. The couple reportedly welcomed daughters Théa and Anna together, and later became grandparents to three children.
“Yes, I’m the great-grandmother of three little Norwegian children who don’t speak French and whom I rarely see,” Brigitte explained to Le Point. The blonde beauty added that she had promised not to talk about her son in interviews, due to the nature of their fractured relationship.
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