estranged son Nicolas
Instead, Bardot wanted to focus on her lifelong dedication to helping animals. She famously pledged, “I gave my youth and beauty to men, I give my wisdom and experience to animals,”
Bardot spent the remainder of her life campaigning for animal welfare under the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. However, in 1995, when she released her memoir, she once again returned to the spotlight because of her words about her son.
Brigitte stated in her memoir that she was never supposed to be a mother. Still, she and her then-husband, Jacques Charrier, welcomed their son, Nicolas, on January 11, 1960, in Paris, France.
The birth was painful. In her memoir, Brigitte Bardot wrote harsh words about her pregnancy, and that she didn’t want to become a mother.
“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.
The promise Brigitte Bardot made to her estranged son before her death
When she and Charrier divorced, he retained custody of Nicolas and mainly lived with his father’s grandparents.
“I didn’t bring up Nicolas because I needed support, roots,” Bardot later said. “I couldn’t be Nicolas’ roots because I was completely uprooted, unbalanced, lost in that crazy world.”
The 1995 memoir Initiales BB became a huge success, but for Nicolas and Charrier, it was something else. Brigitte described Nicolas as “the object of my misfortune” in the book, which became somewhat of the most talked-about passage. Before its release, her ex-husband and son tried to censor the passages that discussed them. It didn’t work out, and it was released as Bardot had planned.
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