The late French screen icon Brigitte Bardot had undergone two operations for cancer before she succumbed to the disease last month, her husband told Paris Match magazine in an interview published ahead of her funeral.
Bardot "had tolerated very well the two procedures she underwent to treat the cancer that took her," Bernard d'Ormale told the magazine as people gathered in Saint-Tropez for a church service and burial.
After being hospitalised twice in late 2025, Bardot insisted she wanted to return home to her villa, known as La Madrague, despite being in physical discomfort.
"It was uncomfortable, even when she was bedridden," added the former far-right political adviser.
"However, she remained conscious and concerned about the fate of animals until the very end."
Bardot's death at the age of 91 was announced on Sunday, 28 December.
"The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation," it said in a statement sent to AFP.
It added: "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation wishes to pay tribute to the memory of an exceptional woman who gave up everything for a world more respectful of animals.
"Her legacy remains, living through the actions and battles that the foundation pursues with the same passion and the same loyalty to her ideals."
Bardot became a global star after appearing in ...And God Created Woman in 1956, and she went on to appear in about 50 more films before giving up acting to devote herself to defending animal rights.
For much of the latter part of her life, Bardot lived alone behind high walls in Saint-Tropez, surrounded by a menagerie of cats, dogs, and horses.
As her advocacy intensified, so too did the backlash to her political statements.
Bardot's public remarks on immigration, Islam, and homosexuality led to a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred.
Between 1997 and 2008, she was fined six times by French courts for her comments, particularly those targeting France's Muslim community.
In 1992, she married Bernard d'Ormale, a former adviser to the far-right National Front, and later publicly endorsed the party's successive leaders, Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Yet, for all her polarising views, Bardot’s influence endured, whether in fashion - with media noting regular comebacks of her trademark hairstyle - or through regular documentaries and coffee‑table books celebrating her rare impact on French cinema.
Source: AFP/Reuters
