Jane Birkin, the British-born singer and actress who became a style icon in her adopted France, has died, a close source to the star has said. She was 76.
Birkin had been suffering from health problems in recent years that had forced her to cancel concerts.
French media reported that Birkin was found dead at her home in Paris. The cause of death has not been reported.
Birkin was best known overseas for the 1969 hit Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus in which she duetted with her then-partner, the late French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
Birkin was an icon in her adopted France, catapulted to fame by her turbulent relationship with Gainsbourg and her heavily accented French, which became her personal style signifier.
She crossed the Channel in 1968, at the age of 22, to star in a film alongside Gainsbourg, who was 18 years her senior.
It was the start of a 13-year relationship that made them France's most famous couple, in the spotlight as much for their bohemian and hedonistic lifestyle as for their work.
Birkin, with her soft voice and androgynous silhouette, quickly became a sex symbol.
Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus, which was banned on radio in several countries and condemned by the Vatican, became a worldwide success.
"He and I became the most famous of couples in that strange way because of Je T'aime and because we stuck together for 13 years, and he went on being my friend until the day he died. Who could ask for more?" Birkin told CNN in 2006.
Birkin was born in London on 14 December, 1946 to a naval officer and actress.
At 17, she married James Bond composer John Barry, with whom she had a daughter, Kate, but the marriage lasted only three years.
Her film debut in 1966 made waves with her full frontal nude scene in the Swinging Sixties classic Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.
After meeting Gainsbourg in Paris on the set of a romantic comedy - he was her co-star - she moved to France permanently.
Their musical and romantic relationship was tempestuous.
During one of their raging rows, Birkin tossed herself into the River Seine after throwing a custard pie in Gainsbourg's face.
They had a daughter, Charlotte, who is a successful actress and singer.
Birkin finally walked out on Serge Gainsbourg in 1980 and went on to blaze her own trail.
In cinema, she branched out from more ditsy roles to arthouse productions, gaining three nominations at the Césars - France's Oscars - starting with La Pirate in 1985.
In her film career, she was directed by the likes of Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, James Ivory and Agnès Varda.
But she remained forever associated with Gainsbourg, who continued to write songs for her after their split, including Les Dessous Chics about lingerie being used to try to cover up a relationship on the rocks.
"It's the most beautiful song about separation you could ever have," Birkin told AFP in a 2018 interview.
A chronic alcoholic, Gainsbourg died of a heart attack in 1991 aged 62.
A few years earlier he was in the audience to hear Birkin perform her first solo concert at the age of 40 at the Bataclan theatre in Paris.
In 1998 came her first record without Gainsbourg, À La Légère.
But she repeatedly returned to his repertoire, singing his hits accompanied by a full orchestra around the world, including in 2020 in New York where she performed with Iggy Pop.
Birkin became a national treasure in France, preserving the accent that made the French swoon throughout her life and an endearing air of fragility.
Her life was marked by tragedy, with her eldest daughter Kate Barry, a photographer, dying in 2013.
Birkin fought leukaemia in the late 1990s and in 2021 suffered a minor stroke.
With her flared jeans, mini dresses and messy bangs, Birkin was the ultimate 'It Girl' in the 1970s.
In 1984, Hermes named one of its handbags after her.
She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001 for her services to acting and British-French cultural relations.
Besides Charlotte and Kate, she had another daughter, singer Lou Doillon, from her 13-year relationship with French director Jacques Doillon.
Paying tribute, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media: "Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon.
"A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery.
"She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us."
Source: AFP, Reuters, Press Association
