Actress Brigitte Bardot is recovering at home in Saint-Tropez, France, after spending three weeks in the hospital, according to French newspaper Var-Matin.
Bardot, 91, underwent surgery related to a “serious illness” and was in “worrying” condition, the paper adds, citing unnamed sources.
Us Weekly has reached out to Bardot’s foundation for comment.
The actor and singer retired in the 1970s and has kept a relatively low profile since then. Bardot’s reported hospitalization comes just over two years after she suffered respiratory problems amid a July heat wave in 2023. Medics arrived at her home to treat her for difficulty breathing.
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“[Her breathing] was stronger than usual but she did not lose consciousness,” her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, told Var-Matin at the time. “Let’s call it a moment of respiratory distraction.”
He added, “Like all people of a certain age, she can no longer bear the heat. It happens at 88 years old. She must not make useless efforts.”
Bardot got her start as an actress at age 17 with her first big role coming in the 1952 film Manina, the Girl in the Bikini. The movie sparked controversy for Bardot, a minor, wearing a bikini on screen, but her career flourished. The roles came pouring in, with Bardot later playing the lead in the musical film Naughty Girl and comedy Plucking the Daisy, both released in 1956.
Her drama And God Created Woman, also released in 1956, made her a global star, earning $4 million in the United States — the highest-grossing foreign film ever at the time. That film, along with her continued work as a model and actress in roles controversial for the time, made her known as the “sex kitten.”
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In the U.S., theater managers were arrested for showing And God Created Woman, and the Vatican eventually condemned Bardot as “evil.” Nevertheless, her career continued to soar, as she continued making movies and soon explored the music world, releasing her debut album, Brigitte Bardot Sings, in 1963.
Bardot made her final film in 1973 at age 39, saying at the time she wanted to “get out elegantly.”
She was married three times before tying the knot with d’Ormale in 1992. She and Roger Vadim were married in 1952 and split in 1957. She then married Jacques Charrier two years later before their 1962 divorce. Bardot was also married to German millionaire Gunter Sachs from 1966 to 1969.
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Bardot has just one child, son Nicolas, whom she shared with Charrier. The actress did not want to be a mother, seeking an abortion despite the practice being illegal in France at the time. When her son was born, she referred to him as a “cancerous tumor” and said she would rather have given “birth to a dog.”
“I’m not made to be a mother. I’m not adult enough,” she once said in an interview. “I know it’s horrible to have to admit that, but I’m not adult enough to take care of a child.”
Charrier eventually gained custody of Nicolas after the divorce, and he did not speak to his mother for decades. The two eventually reconciled after Nicolas became a grandfather himself.
