Social media users react to Brigitte Bardot’s controversial legacy

Brigitte Bardot, one of France's most famous screen icons, died at the age of 91 on Sunday, with social media reactions to her death highlighting the stark divide between her cinematic legacy and her later political views.

Best known for the films And God Created Woman, Le Mepris and La Verite, Bardot rose to international fame in the late 1950s and 1960s as a symbol of sexual liberation.

As well as her work in film, Bardot emerged as a fashion icon, with her blonde hair and bold eyeliner setting beauty trends worldwide.

However, after retiring from acting at the peak of her fame in the early 1970s, Bardot shifted her focus to animal rights activism, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986.

She was admired for her campaigns against animal cruelty, especially her advocacy for baby seals and elephants.

But, as time passed, Bardot's public persona grew increasingly controversial. She became outspoken in her support for far-right politics, aligning herself with figures like Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's far-right National Front (now National Rally). Her marriage to Le Pen’s former adviser Bernard d'Ormale in 1992 solidified her political shift.

Bardot's vocal opposition to immigration, Islam, and the LGBTQIA+ community led to several convictions for inciting racial hatred.

She was fined multiples times for her inflammatory remarks, including a €15,000 fine in 2008 for inciting hatred against the Muslim community.

In 2006, she wrote to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy: "I am fed up with being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us," criticising the ritual slaughter of animals during Eid al-Adha and calling for them to be stunned beforehand. The prosecution had requested a two-month suspended prison sentence.

In 2019, Bardot was fined €20,000 for calling the people of Réunion Island “savages” in a letter criticising animal cruelty on the island.

She specifically targeted the Hindu Tamil population for practices like ritual goat slaughter during religious festivals, describing them as “barbaric” and reminiscent of “cannibalism from centuries past”.

Her remarks were widely condemned as racist, and she was sanctioned for inciting racial hatred.

En 2019, Brigitte Bardot avait déclaré, à propos des Réunionnais : "Les autochtones ont gardé leurs gènes de sauvages".

Pour ces propos racistes, elle a été condamnée à 20 000€ d'amende. pic.twitter.com/M3AF6uvYdg

— Camille Stineau (@CamilleStineau) December 28, 2025

[Translation: In 2019, Brigitte Bardot said of the people of Réunion: "The natives have kept their savage genes." She was fined €20,000 for these racist remarks.]

Social media users' reactions to her death were swift and divided, underscoring the contrast between Bardot’s early fame and the controversial views she expressed later in life.

While many paid tribute to Bardot as a pioneer of cinema and animal rights, others focused on the more troubling aspects of her legacy.

Brigitte Bardot, whose death at 91 was announced today, was well known for her status as a 60s sex symbol. Unfortunately, she veered to the far right, making terrible statements about the LGBTQ+ community, Muslims, and immigrants which led to five convictions for inciting hatred.… pic.twitter.com/oKwvcXBr51

— Save Our Citizenships 🔻 (@LetsStopC9) December 28, 2025

“Brigitte Bardot, convicted 6 times for inciting racial hatred, has died. Bardot's legacy includes repeated Islamophobic statements, calling the residents of Réunion island 'degenerate savages', supporting far-right politician Marine Le Pen, and dismissing #MeToo as 'hypocritical’,” tweeted one user, summarising the criticism Bardot faced during her later years.

Others were more blunt in their assessment of Bardot’s legacy.

One X user wrote, “Brigitte Bardot dying the same year as Jean-Marie Le Pen… bad year for French right-wing pieces of s**t."

Meanwhile, other users questioned the glorification of Bardot in the face of her harmful views: "I’m French, and I can say that Brigitte Bardot was not an icon at all. Over the last 20 years of her life, she was openly racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic. Praising her is comparable to praising Kirk or Trump,” one X user wrote.

Some social media posts centered on Bardot’s refusal to acknowledge the harm her comments caused.

"Brigitte Bardot had a chance to leave a better image behind through her noble fight for animal rights. Unfortunately, all we will remember is her racism and homophobia in the last years of her life. What a tragic fate," another X user wrote. 

"Bardot was not just a film icon. She was a figure of the far-right, condemned five times for racist remarks," another posted, adding, "Refusing to honor her does not mean disrespecting the dead; it’s refusing collective amnesia."

In a more reflective tone, one user remarked, "Bardot's 'freedom' was to insult foreigners, Muslims, homosexuals, Reunionese people, feminists, refugees… to speak of her as a free woman - of insulting and discriminating - is to normalize words that have been condemned."

One post summarized this perspective bluntly: "Reminder that Brigitte Bardot was not a 'controversial figure', she was a repeatedly convicted racist."

Another X user questioned the selective nature of public memory, asking, "Would people pay tribute to Brigitte Bardot if she had been convicted of antisemitism rather than racism?"