Brigitte Bardot ‘recovering’ after emergency services treat actor at home as she struggles to breathe

Ambulances were called to French actor’s Saint-Tropez home on Wednesday

Brigitte Bardot has been treated at home by emergency services after struggling to breathe due to the heat, her husband has confirmed.

On Wednesday (19 July), ambulances were called to the French actor’s Saint-Tropez home, where Bardot was put on oxygen.

The news was confirmed by her husband Bernard d’Ormale, who told French news outletVar-Matin that the emergency services had initially gone to the wrong address.

“It was around 9am when Brigitte had trouble breathing,” he said (via Page Six). “[Her breathing] was stronger than usual but she did not lose consciousness.”

Calling Bardot’s breathing issues “a moment of respiratory distraction”, d’Ormale, 82, said that firefighters soon arrived, putting Bardot on oxygen before staying to watch her.

“Like all people of a certain age, she can no longer bear the heat,” he explained. “It happens at 88 years old. She must not make useless efforts.”

In a later statement shared with Var-Matin on Wednesday evening, d’Ormale stressed that Bardot was recovering, having attended a medical centre for a check-up on a respiratory condition.

Her red blood cell count was low, he said, but Bardot had only needed to use a little of the oxygen provided by firefighters.

Bardot and d’Ormale have been married for more than three decades. Before their marriage in 1992, Bardot was married four times, with her current marriage lasting longer than the past three combined.

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Bardot in 1960 (Getty Images)

In a 2018 interview, the actor said that she had previously been in a habit of leaving her relationships when “the present was getting lukewarm”.

“I have always looked for passion,” she said. “That’s why I was often unfaithful. When the passion was coming to an end, I was packing my suitcase.”

Born in 1934, Paris native Bardot began her career as an actor in 1952, and gained international recognition five years later for her role in And God Created Woman.

She also performed in musicals and recorded songs before retiring from entertainment in 1973.

A prominent animal rights activist, Bardot is also well known for making racist comments, in particular when writing about animal abuse.

In 2007 (AFP via Getty Images)

In November 2021, Bargot was fined €20,000 for “inciting racial hatred” after calling the residents of Réunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, “degenerate savages”.

It marked her sixth fine for racist comments, the most widely reported coming in 2008, when she wrote an Islamophobic letter to Nicolas Sarkozy referring to Muslims as “this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts”.

However, Bardot defended her comments in 2012, saying: “I don’t care about looking conservative and awkward. I’m only looking to assuage my soul and protect the animals.”

In 2018, Bardot controversially made headlines once again after calling the #MeToo movement “hypocritical and ridiculous”.

Joining the other prominent French actors to criticise the campaign, Bardot claimed: “Lots of actresses try to play the tease with producers to get a role. And then, so we will talk about them, they say they were harassed.”