This morning, I was video chatting with a friend (actually with Judy MacMahon, fondatrice MyfrenchLife!) and at the same time I had the screen of my TV on and was glancing at it between two conversational exchanges. I agree, it was not very polite to be ‘multitasking’ while chatting with a friend, but today, there were extenuating circumstances; it’s 7 January and Brigitte Bardot’s funeral is taking place in Saint Tropez and being broadcast live.
At first, my intention for watching was pure curiosity; after all, I belong to a generation that grew up with her image constantly on magazine covers, and life largely commented upon, whether for her films and her Saint Tropez nightlife extravaganza first, or her complete dedication to the animal cause and her political stands later on.
Emotional reaction
However, unexpectedly, I found myself shedding tears at the sight of her funeral cortege passing through the streets of Saint Tropez. Moreover, I couldn’t agree more when I heard Mireille Mathieu exclaim, ‘Brigitte Bardot, c’est la France!’ as she was a special guest about to sing during the funeral mass.
Something good to remember
Since the day the former actress and French icon passed away, on 28 December 2025, I had read and heard and seen a lot about her, in a fair share of praise and criticism. It was very confusing; she was one of those famous people still alive who had embodied the time of my childhood. I just wanted to remain, if not for a brief moment, 100% positive about her.
Among all the details that were going through the lenses of her detractors and admirors, I was surprised to find out she had played a major role in a story I remembered about Josephine Baker, when it was all about the news in the 1960s that she was losing her castle, which was the home for her 12 (I have also come across the numbers 11 and 13) adopted children.
What we may not have known about her
1964— Although Brigitte Bardot is at the peak of her fame and film career, she asks for a special interview on tv, not for more publicity but to use her name and image to save Josephine Baker from bankruptcy. Indeed, the American singer is about to lose the castle ‘Les Milandes’ in Périgord, which she had bought to bring-up her adopted children.
The Josephine Baker story in short
The roaring 20s
We all have in mind Josephine Baker singing ‘J’ai deux amours,Mon Pays et Paris’ in her sweet American accent and dancing in the roaring Paris 20s wearing a skirt made of bananas! Surely, this was the beginning of her successful French career, but not what can entirely summarize her life.
WW2 Heroine
In the 1930s, while on holiday in the Perigord, she had spotted the dilapidated Château Les Milandes and had fallen deeply in love with it. She then purchased her dream castle and even used it during the Second World War to hide people wanted by the Nazis. For these incredible acts in the Resistance, she was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de Guerre by the French military, and she was named a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle!
Her Rainbow Tribe - the Castle of Milandes
After spending millions of the restoration work of Milandes, she adopted her 12 children of every race and culture, her “Rainbow Tribe”, which she hoped to show everyone that people can get along no matter what their race or culture.
However the money went scarce with time and 30 years later she was unable to keep the Castle safe from her creditors.
Brigitte Bardot’s role in support of Josephine Baker
The Call
Hence, on 4 June 1964, Brigitte Bardot asked for a special appearance on French TV to call for the French generosity (there was one national channel in black and white at the time), just before the highly popular 8 pm evening news (which all people who owned a tv watched) to help Josephine Baker and her adopted children who were about to be homeless, save their home (it was a sort of ‘gofundme’ ahead of time!) .
Nevertheless, it was an act of pure kindness, dictated by nobody but herself, that could only serve the people she wanted to help.
In the video excerpt, we can watch Brigitte Bardot’s call as well as Josephine Baker’s reaction afterwards, who is deeply moved by the star’s good deed, as both celebrities did not know each other particularly beforehand.
Her call on French TV (video on YouTube) Brigitte Bardot et Joséphine Baker (1964)
The Follow Up
In an INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel/ The French televised archives ) documentary, Josephine Baker explains later that following Brigitte Bardot’s initiative, even children sent money from their Piggy Bank, and she received hundreds of letters in support. Unfortunately, she did lose her castle some time afterwards, and another good fairy then intervened in the person of Princess Grace, who gave her shelter in Monaco.
In conclusion, I believe that a person’s life and their personality are more complex and hard to understand than one commentator could summarize in a few catch phrases.
This episode in the life of Brigitte Bardot is worth accounting for, among those that got more visibility.
Let’s give the Nobel Prize for Literature to Marguerite Yourcenar, who shared the same passion for the animal cause, the final words about her:
« Il est bon que la beauté et la grâce soient en même temps la bonté. »
Post Scriptum: I’d like to point out that this call was not an isolated act of kindness unbeknownst by most of her contemporaries and I wish to mention another initiative she also took: in 2004 she tried to save a killer, Farley C. Matchett, an African-American, from being put to death in Texas, arguing, despite having committed a serious crime, that it was self-defense.
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Such an interesting piece about Brigitte Bardot, Jacqueline and full of information that was new to me. Guess it takes the French to know the French.
Judy
Beautiful piece showing a side of Bardot most people never talk about. The 1964 TV appeal for Josephine Baker is powerful, using celebrity influence for genuine good instead of self-promotion. I remember reading about Baker's Rainbow Tribe years ago but never knew Bardot's role in that story. The way kids sent money from their piggy banks after her call shows how much impact one public figure can have when they step outside thier usual sphere. That Marguerite Yourcenar quote at the end ties it together perfectly.