Brigitte Bardot Had Famously Estranged Relationship With Only Son Nicolas-Jacques Charrier
French actress Brigitte Bardot, who has died at the age of 91, leaves behind one child, son Nicolas-Jacques Charrier. They had a famously estranged relationship over the years.
She was married four times. Her son was her child with one of her ex-husbands, the French actor Jacques Charrier. He was born in 1960. Bardot, who was known for her animal rights activism later in life, did not speak highly of motherhood and, according to People, her relationship with her son was "estranged." Bardot, who was hospitalized recently but whose cause of death was not released, spoke out repeatedly about her distaste for motherhood over the years.
Today, Bardot's son lives in Norway with his model wife Anne-Line Bjerkan. Charrier was Bardot's second husband. Her fourthand final husband was Bernard d'Ormale. She was also married to director Roger Vadim and German millionaire Gunter Sachs. Her first three marriages ended in divorce.
Brigitte Bardot Once Said She Was 'Not Made to Be a Mother'
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Bardot opened up about her attitudes toward motherhood in her memoir, Initiales B.B.
"I'm not made to be a mother," she wrote, according to People."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."
According to People, she gave birth to Nicolas-Jacques in a home birth at her apartment, but when she and his father divorced, the dad took custody of the boy. "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.
Her son lived mostly with his father's parents, People reported, quoting Bardot as saying, “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.”
In later years, Bardot stopped talking about her son. “I promised Nicolas I would never talk about him in my interviews,” she told Le Point in 2024.
According to The Independent, Charrier and his father tried to censor Bardot's memoir after she called him the “object of my misfortune.” She wrote in her memoir that she wanted to have an abortion but couldn't get one because abortion was illegal in France at the time, The Independent added. She once said at a press conference that she would have rather given birth "to a little dog," The Independent reported.
Nicolas-Jacques Charrier wrote a book in response to Bardot's memoir. "By giving my version of the facts, I'm doing her a big favour," Charrier 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."
Brigitte Bardot Is a Grandmother & Great-Grandmother
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Bardot also leaves behind two grandchildren, Théa and Anna Charrier, and three great-grandchildren, according to US Weekly.
Théa Charrier has been described as having a resemblance to Bardot.
According to Daily Mail.com, Bardot's son "now works as a systems engineer in Norway, and has two children Anna-Camilla and Thea-Josephine." According to Elle, "Born in 1985, Anna Charrier Bjerkan lives in the Norwegian capital. The 40-year-old works as a lawyer. His younger sister, Thea, was born in 1990."
“Yes, I am a great-grandmother of three little Norwegians who do not speak French and that I rarely see,” she told Le Point.
By 2018, Bardot was visiting her son at least yearly, The Independent reported, and she lived near him in Norway.