Brigitte Bardot’s husband has spoken publicly about her final days, revealing that the French screen icon died following complications linked to cancer treatment.
Bernard d’Ormale told Paris Match that Bardot, who died last month aged 91, had undergone two major operations in the weeks before her death after being diagnosed with cancer.
He said she had tolerated the procedures “very well” after being rushed to hospital in late November.
He spoke ahead of the star’s funeral being held in Saint-Tropez on Wednesday.
Recalling her final moments, d’Ormale described what he called the most moving experience of their 30-year marriage.
“They were the most moving moment of my life with Brigitte, because she was leaving us,” he said.
“She said ‘pew pew’. I was half asleep, I sat up and saw that she had stopped breathing.”
According to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, she would often use the phrase as a “little word of love”.
Bardot died at 6am on December 28.
“I saw her suffering disappear in the next fifteen minutes – she became magnificent,” her husband added.
A private funeral service was taking place, followed by a public tribute in the Riviera town where Bardot lived for more than 50 years.
Crowds gathered in the streets to pay their respects. Attendees at the funeral included French far-right leader Marine Le-Pen.
Bardot's coffin, covered in mostly orange and yellow flowers, was carried into the town's Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church at the start of the funeral service, which was covered live by French news channels.
Inside the church, a black and white picture of Bardot hugging a baby seal was on display, with the words "Merci Brigitte" (Thank you Brigitte). Outside, one man held a placard that read: "The animals thank Brigitte Bardot".
Although Bardot had previously said she wished to be buried among her animals, she will instead be laid to rest at the Marine Cemetery in Saint-Tropez, close to the grave of her first husband, director Roger Vadim, who died in 2000.
The actress had faced serious health issues for decades.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and refused chemotherapy, opting instead for radiotherapy, which led to remission two years later.
She also lived with severe arthritis, often relying on walking sticks.
Bardot appeared in 45 films and recorded 70 songs before retiring from public life in 1973.
A defining figure of the post-war sexual revolution, she became synonymous with a new, unapologetic image of female freedom in the 1950s and 60s from her bikini-clad appearance at Cannes in 1953 to her Playboy cover at 40.
Nicknamed the “sex kitten” by the British and American press, Bardot later rejected fame at its height, devoting the remainder of her life to animal rights activism.
Her political sympathies shifted to the far-right National Front. Incendiary remarks on immigration, Islam and homosexuality saw her convicted multiple times for inciting racial hatred.
