Brigitte Bardot’s complicated love life: How French acting legend’s ‘quest for passion’ saw her embark on four marriages and affairs with Hollywood co-stars

A serial seducer and once dubbed ‘France’s most admired export’, Brigitte Bardot was married four times and is said to have slept with more than 100 lovers – including women – in her lifetime.

The actress, known as the original ‘Sex Kitten’, has been open about her feelings towards men, saying: ‘I knew my career was based solely on my looks, so I decided to leave movies the same way I always left men, before they left me.’

In her book Larmes de battle, Bardot explained candidly why she had so many relationships: ‘In each relationship, I was constantly returning to seek other loves when the present grew lukewarm. I don’t like the break, the less it is good.

‘I have always looked for passion. That’s why I’ve been unfaithful most of the time. And when the passion was over, I’d pack my bags.’

Bardot was born into a wealthy Parisian family on September 28, 1934, and lived in the elegant 16th arrondissement of Paris, a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower.

Her parents enrolled her in a ballet school, and in May 1949 she was given her first modeling assignment and appeared on the front cover of Elle magazine.

In 1952, at the age of 18, her modeling style began to evolve into the ‘sex kitten’ image for which she would soon become known; She preferred flat ballet shoes, a thick-cut fringe, lipstick and clothes that emphasized her figure.

Bardot met the man who would become her first husband in her early modeling days; Roger Vadim. Vadim was an assistant to filmmaker Marc Allégret, who was credited with discovering the biggest stars of French cinema in the 1930s.

The two met when Vadim went to see the then 16-year-old for Allégret’s next project and; Even though Bardot did not get the role, she stole Vadim’s heart at the first meeting.

Writer Ginette Vincendeau revealed that Bardot once wrote of Vadim: ‘He looked at me, he frightened me, he pulled me, I didn’t know where I was anymore.’

The actress known as the original ‘Sex Kitten’ has been open about her feelings for men. she says: ‘I knew my career was based solely on my looks, so I decided to quit movies before they left me, just like I always left men.’

They became lovers, meeting secretly and then openly, despite the wishes of their parents, who threatened to send their daughter away from Vadim to England.

However, when Bardot attempted suicide because she could not be with Vadim, they finally gave in and consented to the relationship. Their condition was that the couple would wait until Bardot was 18 before marrying.

Finally, the couple walked down the aisle in a Catholic ceremony in Paris on December 21, 1952.

Bardot gained international fame with her role in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, directed by Vadim and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Despite cuts from Hollywood censors, it became the highest-grossing foreign film ever released in the United States.

It was from these early modeling days that she met Vadim, the assistant of filmmaker Marc Allégret, who discovered the biggest stars of French cinema in the 1930s.

Vadim was sent by his boss to see the sixteen-year-old girl for Allégret’s next film project.

Bardot didn’t get the assignment, but she and Vadim instantly fell madly in love with each other.

Picture: Playboy Roger Vadim and Bardot on set. After meeting the model, the French filmmaker helped her become a star

Bardot’s parents initially disapproved of her union with Vadim but agreed to marry him after he attempted suicide. Above: His father walking down the aisle, December 19, 1952

Brigitte with her second husband Jacques Charrier, with whom she has a son named Nicolas

Charrier and Bardot on the set of ‘Babette S’en Va-T-En Guerre’ (Babette Goes to War). The couple divorced in 1962

Four years after their lavish wedding at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Vadim and Bardot separated and divorced a year later, in 1957. They were both unfaithful.

“I knew what was happening, or rather, I was expecting it,” Vadim said. ‘I would always prefer to have such a wife who knows she is unfaithful to me, than to have a woman who loves me and loves no one else.’

‘I wanted a woman with spirit, a zest for life…a woman with a sense of adventure and sexual curiosity.’

Bardot was crazy about Trintignant, who also divorced his wife. They lived together for two years, but the fickle sex goddess moved on to the married singer Gibert Bécaud.

Successive relationships became a pattern in his life, and he was always the first to leave a relationship. Bardot admitted to having more than 100 lovers, some of whom were women.

Bécaud was followed by a relationship with singer Sacha Distrel, followed by her Babette Goes to War co-star Jacque Charrier. In 1959, he became her second husband and the father of her child.

She didn’t want the pregnancy, but Charrier’s family convinced her to carry the child. It was a difficult birth at home. He was unable to leave his home and reach the hospital in time due to the number of paparazzi in front of him.

He was never able to bond with his son Nicholas, who was born in January 1960, and Charrier gained custody of the child. The couple divorced in 1962.

Bardot would say: ‘I was not created to be a mother.

‘I don’t know why I think this way because I love animals and children but I’m not adult enough; I know it’s terrible to have to admit this, but I’m not adult enough to care for a child.

Bardot’s third husband was German industrialist Gunter Sachs. The couple was married between 1966 and 1969

Successive relationships became a pattern in his life, and he was always the first to leave a relationship. Bardot admitted to having more than 100 lovers, some of whom were women.

Bardot is said to have rejected Sean Connery’s offer while the pair were filming the 1968 Western film Shalako; The actress told Vanity Fair that she got into his bed ‘naked except for her socks.’

In 1992, Bardot married her husband Bernard d’Ormale, a former advisor to Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National.

‘I need someone to take care of me. I’m sorry I had that baby. What will his life be like? People having babies and families are crazy now. ‘This is a very bad world.’

In a searingly painful account, Bardot’s autobiography reveals how she repeatedly punched him in the stomach and tried to persuade doctors to prescribe him a lethal dose of morphine when backroom abortionists refused to operate on him.

The actress added that she would rather ‘give birth to a little dog’.

Describing the day she found out she was pregnant, Bardot wrote: ‘I looked in the mirror at my flat, slim belly like a dear friend about to close the coffin lid.’

Another passage described her son’s fetus as being like a ‘cancerous tumor’ growing inside her.

Following the publication of the memoirs, Jacques and Nicolas-Jacques Charrier sued Bardot for £28,000 for hurtful remarks she had made about them.

Her relationships with co-star Mike Sarne, Warren Beatty, singers Serge Gainsbourg, Nino Ferrer and Brazilian musician Bab Zagury took place before she married her third husband, German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs, in Las Vegas in 1966.

A few hours after they met, Sachs made love to her by showering her Saint Tropez house with roses dropped from a helicopter.

The actress later wrote: ‘It’s not possible for a man to drop a ton of roses in your garden every day.’

They divorced in 1969 after it was reported that Bardot had an affair with singer Mike Sarne just days after returning home from the wedding.

‘I always did what I wanted… I know I have greater courage than many men. ‘They can learn a lot from me,’ Bardot once said.

However, Sachs and Bardot were on good terms with this playboy saying about the actress: ‘A year spent with Bardot was worth 10 years spent with anyone else.’

Bardot is said to have rejected Sean Connery’s offer while the pair were filming the 1968 Western film Shalako. Vanity Fair She came to bed ‘completely naked except for her socks’.

Bardot was born into a wealthy Parisian family on September 28, 1934, and lived in the elegant 16th arrondissement of Paris, a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower.

‘It didn’t last long because I wasn’t a James Bond girl! I’ve never been attracted to him!’ he said.

Lonely and sometimes unhappy in her forties and wondering what to do with her future, she married her fourth husband, Bernard d’Ormale, in 1992. The one-time businessman was a former advisor to the far-right National Front.

The couple remained married until his death was announced today at the age of 91.

His foundation did not say when or where he died.

“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with great sadness the death of its founder and president, world-famous actress and singer Madame Brigitte Bardot, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to devote her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” the statement said. The statement was included.

Bardot has rarely been seen in public in recent months, but she was hospitalized in October and released a statement in November denying rumors that she had died.