Brigitte Bardot Was a Complicated Person Who Held Deeply Controversial Beliefs

Following the death of French actor, model, and activist Brigitte Bardot, some people have struggled to find the appropriate way to mourn her. While she was a towering figure in the entertainment industry, best known for her portrayals of hedonistic women, the actor's personal views often got her into trouble.

Brigitte was also a passionate animal rights activist who had been advocating for them since 1962. Two decades later, she created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986, which "works for the protection of wild and domestic animals in France and internationally." It's hard to reconcile that work with her controversial beliefs. Here's what we know about them.

According to The Guardian, in April 2008, Brigitte was on trial for "inciting racial hatred" based on comments she wrote in a letter to then-French president Nicholas Sarkozy. The actor-turned-activist was angry about the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which involves slaughtering sheep. "I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts," she said. This letter was published on her foundation's website.

This was the fifth time Brigitte faced legal troubles for making inflammatory and bigoted statements about Muslims. She had been fined four times since 1997 regarding her feelings about the "Islamization of France." Brigitte believed the country was overrun with "sheep-slaughtering Muslims."

Nearly 15 years after her last brush with the law, Brigitte was slapped with another fine in November 2021, per the New York Post. The racially charged incident involved yet another letter Brigitte penned in 2019. This time, she focused her bigotry on the Reunionese who inhabit the island of La Réunion. Brigitte referred to them as "natives who still have savage genes." She spoke of the Hindu Tamil population, whom Brigitte said sacrifice goats. She was fined approximately $23,100.

In 2003, The Guardian reported that Brigitte was getting fined for a similar reason based on things she wrote in her book A Cry in the Silence. In it, she referred to gay and lesbian people as "cheap f----ts or circus freaks." She also railed against unemployed people, saying they "only accept jobs on the black market ... and cash in on taxpayers' money."

Brigitte touched on her political beliefs in the 2025 book Mon BBcédaire, in which she alphabetically lists words that have defined her life, providing her own definitions. She said Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party was the "only urgent remedy to the agony of France," in reference to its Muslim population. She goes on to describe France as "dull, sad, submissive, ill, ruined, ravaged, ordinary, and vulgar."

The actor's political beliefs stretched back to the 1990s when she supported Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and his anti-immigration Front National. That was the precursor to the National Rally party. Brigitte was a staunch supporter of the far right, but stated publicly that she would work with any politician on animal rights, per The Guardian.