In his autobiography La Couleur des fantômes, Jean-Jacques Debout sheds light on a lesser-known and painful chapter in the life of French icon Brigitte Bardot: her fractured relationship with her only son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier.
Bardot has never hidden her aversion to motherhood—and her son was the first to bear the cost. Half a century later, the pain of that severed bond resurfaces through Debout’s words. A close friend of Bardot, he recounts how the actress, despite her global fame, struggled with the very idea of being a mother.
In her own 1996 memoir, Bardot described her pregnancy as an ordeal, referring to her unborn child as a “tumor” and a “nightmare.” Her words painted a picture of an unwanted motherhood, which she never embraced. She openly admitted that she lacked the instinct or desire to raise a child, choosing instead to focus on her film career.
Separated from birth
Nicolas was born in 1960 from Bardot’s marriage to actor Jacques Charrier. When the couple divorced in 1963, the child was entrusted to his father. Raised far from the media glare, Nicolas grew up with little contact with his mother. According to Debout, Bardot, though affectionate in her own way, quickly relinquished custody to Charrier, admitting that she simply wasn’t suited for motherhood.
Debout recounts that Bardot believed “Jacques would have taken his own life without their son”—a final gesture toward her former husband rather than a maternal decision.
Her prolonged absence deeply shaped the mother-son relationship. The situation also strained her marriage, with Jacques reportedly blaming Bardot for her emotional detachment. “She loved her son, but didn’t take care of him. Being Brigitte Bardot and handling a child all day was nearly impossible,” writes Debout.
A quiet life far from the limelight
Now 65, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier lives in Norway with his wife, model Anne-Line Bjerkan, and their two daughters, born in 1985 and 1990. He has built a stable, private life—one that contrasts starkly with his mother’s turbulent and public existence.
Though there have been occasional attempts at reconciliation, the distance between them has endured. The bond, once fractured, has never truly been restored.
Brigitte Bardot, now in her twilight years, continues to live in France. While she has hinted at some regret, the decades of silence and absence have carved a chasm that may be too wide to bridge.