{"id":680284,"date":"2026-01-07T16:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680284\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:33:09","slug":"brigitte-bardot-laid-to-rest-in-funeral-ceremony-broadcast-across-saint-tropez-brigitte-bardot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680284\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigitte Bardot laid to rest in funeral ceremony broadcast across Saint-Tropez | Brigitte Bardot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brigitte Bardot, the film star turned animal rights activist<\/a>, has been laid to rest after a funeral service in Saint-Tropez attended by her favourite politician, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.<\/p>\n

Bardot died aged 91 at her La Madrague villa on 28 December<\/a>. Her funeral was held at the Notre-Dame de l\u2019Assomption church and broadcast on large screens across the town.<\/p>\n

Fans waiting for the funeral cortege to pass in Saint-Tropez on Wednesday. Photograph: S\u00e9bastien Nogier\/EPA<\/p>\n

Speaking before the service, Bardot\u2019s husband, Bernard d\u2019Ormale, said she had died of cancer. Without specifying the type of cancer, he told Paris Match his wife had dealt \u201cvery well\u201d with two operations before the disease \u201ctook her\u201d last month.<\/p>\n

Bardot shot to international fame<\/a> in the 1950s and was credited with revolutionising French cinema with films such as And God Created Woman<\/a>, while defying tradition to become a symbol of sexual liberation.<\/p>\n

Brigitte Bardot\u2019s son Nicolas-Jacques Charrier (front left) walking in the cortege. Photograph: Thibaud Moritz\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She retired from acting in the 1970s and became an outspoken campaigner for animal rights. She also became increasingly active politically<\/a> on the far right, alienating some fans in her later life with her hardline public views on immigration.<\/p>\n

Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, particularly about Muslims, and up until her death she expressed her contentment at Le Pen\u2019s anti-immigration National Rally party\u2019s rising share of the vote before the 2027 presidential race.<\/p>\n

A hearse takes Bardot\u2019s coffin to the ceremony. Photograph: Thibaud Moritz\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Wednesday there were cheers as the funeral procession passed through the Place des Lices and by the port of Saint-Tropez before Bardot\u2019s coffin entered the church as a song by Maria Callas played, Nice-Matin reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bardot\u2019s funeral ceremony was screened around Saint-Tropez. Photograph: Pecquenard-Vu\/Sipa\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Along with Bardot\u2019s family, including her son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, 65, among those attending the funeral were the French singers Jean-Roch and Mireille Mathieu, the TV personality Caroline Margeridon and Paul Watson<\/a>, the Canadian-American marine conservation and animal rights activist.<\/p>\n

Le Pen, who has cited Bardot as a model for Marianne, the female symbol of the French republic \u2013 as the ultimate symbol of Frenchness \u2013 was also there. There was mutual admiration between the two women: Bardot once referred to Le Pen as a modern-day Joan of Arc.<\/p>\n

Marine Le Pen (centre) at the ceremony. Photograph: Pecquenard-Vu\/Sipa\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Bardot\u2019s devotion to campaigning for animal rights was expected to be a key theme of the funeral commemorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ceremony will reflect who she was, with the people who knew and loved her. There will no doubt be some surprises, but it will be simple, just as Brigitte wanted,\u201d Bruno Jacquelin, a spokesperson for the Brigitte Bardot<\/a> Foundation, told Agence France-Presse beforehand.<\/p>\n

Bardot\u2019s death prompted tributes but also more critical assessments of her life. Sandrine Rousseau, a politician with the Greens, said: \u201cTo be moved by the fate of dolphins but remain indifferent to the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean \u2013 what level of cynicism is that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brigitte Bardot, the film star turned animal rights activist, has been laid to rest after a funeral service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-680284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115854783485765979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}