Crowds gather in Saint Tropez for Brigitte Bardot’s funeral
Mourners gathered in Saint Tropez for the funeral of French film star Brigitte Bardot on Wednesday, January 7.
Brigitte Bardot’s cause of death has been revealed by her husband, after the French film star died in late December at 91.
Bardot’s husband of 33 years, Bernard d’Ormale, told French magazine Paris Match that Bardot was recovering from two cancer surgeries and suffering from severe back pain. “It slipped out two or three times in recent months,” he told the outlet of her back problems. “During moments of physical suffering, she would say: ‘I’m fed up, I want to leave…'”
The French entrepreneur said she died in bed surrounded by their cats at their home in Saint-Tropez, France, in the early morning hours of Dec. 28.
“I never left her side. I was half asleep beside her. I sat up when I heard her say ‘Pioupiou,’ that little nickname we used for each other in private, and then it was over,” he recalled. “A sense of peace and tranquility settled over her face. And she became incredibly beautiful again, just like in her youth. You wouldn’t have believed she was 91.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Bardot’s foundation for comment.
D’Ormale’s comments come ahead of the “And God Created Woman” actress’ funeral in Saint-Tropez on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
Bardot, a symbol of liberated femininity in 1950s and ’60s France and whose later years were marked by animal rights campaigns and far-right political sympathies, will be laid to rest in Saint-Tropez’s marine cemetery in her family’s vault, according to Paris Match.