Brigitte Bardot’s cause of death has been confirmed by her husband Bernard d’Ormale.
The French cinema icon passed away on December 28 at the age of 91, prompting tributes from the world of entertainment and beyond.
d’Ormale, who married Bardot in 1992, said that she had been diagnosed with cancer (though he didn’t disclose which type) and had undergone two major operations in the weeks before her death.
“I was half asleep beside her,” he told Paris Match of the moment she died. “I sat up when I heard her say ‘Pioupiou,’ that little nickname we used for each other in private, and then it was over.”
“A sense of peace and tranquillity settled over her face. And she became incredibly beautiful again, just like in her youth. You wouldn’t have believed she was 91.”
Bardot’s funeral took place at the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Catholic Church in Saint Tropez, where she lived in privacy, on January 7. The ceremony itself was private but it was broadcast live on large screens at the port and two town plazas for residents and fans to pay their respects.
🇫🇷 Well-wishers lined the streets in Brigitte Bardot's hometown of Saint-Tropez on Wednesday for the funeral of the French screen icon as her husband revealed she had died from cancer.
➡️ https://t.co/4bDLy60rbg pic.twitter.com/kqXD6f3d8h— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 7, 2026
She was subsequently interred “in the strictest privacy” at a cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean Sea where her parents and first husband Roger Vadim were laid to rest.
“Brigitte Bardot will forever be associated with Saint-Tropez, of which she was the most dazzling ambassador,” the town hall said last week. “Through her presence, personality and aura, she marked the history of our town.”
Meanwhile, Chappell Roan recently clarified her position on Bardot’s controversial views, saying she “doesn’t condone” Bardot’s beliefs despite namechecking her in the lyrics of ‘Red Wine Supernova’.
Bardot is mentioned in the lines of the song’s first verse – “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot/ She showed me things I didn’t know/ She did it right there out on the deck/ Put her canine teeth in the side of my neck.”
Bardot was a prolific animal rights activist, joining protests against seal hunts in 1977 and establishing the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986. However, she was also accused of making racist comments several times and has been fined six times by French courts for “inciting racial hatred” with her writing.
In addition, she was criticised after accusing the female stars who spoke out as part of the #MeToo movement of being “hypocritical”.
“Holy shit i did not know all that insane shit Ms. Bardot stood for obvs I do not condone this,” Roan wrote on her Instagram story.