Brigitte Bardot suffered breathing issues Wednesday related to the heat at her home in France, bringing first responders who administered oxygen and stayed to observe the 88-year-old film icon, husband Bernard d’Ormale told Page Six.
“It was around 9 a.m. when Brigitte had trouble breathing,” he told local outlet Var-matin.
“[Her breathing] was stronger than usual but she did not lose consciousness. Let’s call it a moment of respiratory distraction,” he added. “Like all people of a certain age, she can no longer bear the heat. … It happens at 88 years old. She must not make useless efforts.”
Bardot shot to fame in the 50’s and 60’s as an actress, starring in movies like “…And God Created Woman” (1956), “La Vérité” (1960), “Love on a Pillow” (1962) and “Contempt” (1963).
She quit acting in 1973 before she turned 40. Her biography “Being Bardot,” by James Clarke, revealed why she chose to leave the spotlight. Clarke told Fox News that Bardot was exhausted from the pace of work as well as the constant scrutiny of fame in her 20 years as an actress.
Bardot has a history of racist comments, the most recent one occurring in 2009 when she called Réunion inhabitants “degenerate savages. She wrote this in an open letter to the prefect of the island, claiming the citizens were mistreating animals. She was fined after facing prosecution for inciting racial hatred.
In 1987, she raised $500,000 auctioning off one fifth of her personal belongings such as clothes, jewelry and art. She created the Brigitte Bardo Foundation in 1986 to aid wild and domestic animals suffering from lack of care or abuse.
In 1962 at 28 years old, she became an animal ambassador for the first time by publicly speaking out against the suffering of cattle slaughtered in slaughterhouses without stunning.
