Husband Reveals Details of Brigitte Bardot's Final Days

Brigitte Bardot's husband has disclosed new details about the French screen legend's final days, including what he says led up to her death at 91. Bernard d'Ormale told Paris Match that Bardot had recently undergone two cancer operations and was dealing with intense back pain that had caused her back to "[slip] out" multiple times, per USA Today. During bouts of anguish, he said, she would sometimes tell him she was tired of suffering and would say, "I'm fed up, I want to leave."

D'Ormale said Bardot died in bed at their home in Saint-Tropez, France, in the early hours of Dec. 28, with the couple's cats by her side. He said he'd been dozing beside her when she softly called him by their private nickname, "Pioupiou," and then died. He described her face as suddenly peaceful, saying she looked "incredibly beautiful again, just like in her youth."

Bardot, who became an emblem of sexual liberation in 1950s and '60s French cinema before devoting much of her later life to animal rights activism and expressing far-right political views, will be buried in the marine cemetery in Saint-Tropez in her family's vault, per the French publication. Her funeral was held Wednesday, with a private service followed by a public "homage," per the AP.