A dispute over the estate of the late actress Brigitte Bardot has escalated after a private handwritten letter surfaced, allegedly showing her severing ties with her longtime companion, Bernard de Chiara.
The letter, dated November 2022 – three years before Bardot’s death at her Saint‑Tropez home – accuses de Chiara of “patiently destroying me day after day.” The leaked note is now being used by the other side in the inheritance battle: the animal‑rights foundation that bears Bardot’s name. De Chiara alleges that the foundation is rushing to dispose of the estate without regard for friends and intimates.
De Chiara, now 85, was forced to leave the seaside house known as La Madrague, which he shared with Bardot from the early 1990s. After years of financial support from his partner, he reportedly has neither a bank account nor a social‑security card.
Further anger erupted when the Brigitte Bardot Foundation organised a sale of household items from the actress’s Paris flat in September. The auction raised nearly €1 million (£835 000), which was split between the foundation and Bardot’s only son, Nicolas Charrier. “I found it extraordinary that just a few months after Brigitte’s death, they already wanted to make a souvenir out of her. I did not appreciate that one bit,” de Chiara said.
In the letter, which opens with the words “Bernard, it’s a failure!”, Bardot wrote that she had given “everything” in the hope of finding a companion who could return her love, share her joys and immense sorrows… who is happy at the life I am giving him.” She concluded: “Today I have reached the end‑point of my distress… I am so in need of a shoulder, a support, a tenderness, a presence – which you are incapable of giving.”
Bernard de Chiara, widely known under the adopted name d’Ormale (a pun on the French “dort mal” – “sleeps badly”), was a businessman and former associate of far‑right leader Jean‑Marie Le Pen.
