Brigitte Bardot, 88, suffers breathing issues as emergency services rush to her home

Emergency services rushed to the home of Brigitte Bardot on Wednesday after she suffered some difficulties breathing.

The French actress’s husband, Bernard d’Ormale, confirmed the news and clarified what happened shortly after the incident occurred at their Saint-Tropez residence.

He told Var-matin: ‘It was around 9 a.m. when Brigitte had trouble breathing,’ noting that ambulances in the south of France initially ‘got the wrong’ address.

He continued: ‘[Her breathing] was stronger than usual but she did not lose consciousness. Let’s call it a moment of respiratory distraction.’

Bernard confirmed that once emergency services, arrived, they put Bardot, 88, on oxygen ‘and stayed to watch her’ for a while.

All is well! The French actress’s husband, Bernard d’Ormale, confirmed the news and clarified what happened shortly after the incident occurred at their Saint-Tropez residence

He said: ‘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.’

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Brigitte for further information. 

Bardot starred in 47 films before she quit the movie industry in 1973.

Born and raised in Paris, she was an aspiring ballerina before she started working as a fashion model and actress.

Bardot was just 15 when she graced the cover of Elle magazine in 1950, which launched her acting career. Shortly after, she met her first husband, filmmaker Roger Vadim, at an audition.

She didn’t get the role, but she and Vadim fell madly in love. Despite the initial disapproval of her family, they married in 1952, when she was 18 and he was 24.

Bardot shot to fame and became an international sex symbol after playing a sexually liberated young woman in the 1956 film And God Created Woman.

She and Vadim divorced the following year, but they went on to work together in the 1958 movie The Night Heaven Fell.

All change: Bardot quit the movie industry in 1973 and now runs an animal sanctuary in the French Riviera resort of St Tropez

Stunning: The star was just 15 when she graced the cover of Elle magazine in 1950, which launched her acting career, and starred in 47 films before her retirement

In 1959, she tied the knot with Jacques Charrier, and they had a son, Nicolas, together before splitting up in 1962. Four years later, she wed Sachs, but they divorced in 1969.

Since retiring from acting, she has devoted herself to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which is dedicated to animal protection.

Bardot launched the organization in Saint-Tropez, a coastal town on the French Riviera, in 1986 with money raised from selling off her jewelry.

The actress-turned-animal rights activist has been married to far-right political aide d’Ormale since 1992.

Bardot has become a controversial figure in recent years and has been fined six times for ‘inciting racial hatred’ with her writings about animal abuse.

In 2019, she launched a rambling attack against the inhabitants of La Reunion, one of France’s overseas territories spread across the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean, in response to what she saw as their mistreatment of animals.

Bardot called the Indian Ocean islanders ‘savages’ and was later fined €20,000, about $23,000, by a French court in 2021.

Her spokesman Bruno Jacquelin was also fined by the court in the main town of Saint-Denis de la Reunion 4,000 euros (£3,400) for his role in sending the statement to several media outlets at her request.

‘The natives have kept their savage genes,’ the animal rights campaigner wrote in an open letter attacking the islanders for their treatment of animals, describing locals as ‘degenerate savages’.

She took aim at the island’s Hindu Tamil population for sacrificing goats, evoking the ‘cannibalism of past centuries’ as she lashed ‘a degenerate population still soaked in barbarous ancestral traditions’.

Bardot, who shot to fame in the 1956 film ‘…And God Created Woman’, has become a controversial figure, and has also been convicted in the past over her comments about Muslims.

France’s then overseas territories minister Annick Girardin told her in a letter at the time after her comments on Le Reunion ‘that racism is not an opinion, it’s an offence’.

Didier Robert, President of the Reunion region, previously described Bardot as ‘irresponsible, outrageous and contemptuous’.

He said her letter contained deeply racist terms that were ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

On the mend: Bernard confirmed that once emergency services, arrived, they put Bardot, 88, on oxygen ‘and stayed to watch her’ for a while

During previous court appearances in France, Bardot has also received substantial fines and been forced to apologise for her bigotry.

Bardot is a close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the FN, who has been convicted for anti-Semitism, racism and Holocaust denial. His daughter, Marine Le Pen, now runs the party.

Bardot quit the movie industry in 1973 and now runs an animal sanctuary in the French Riviera resort of St Tropez, where she first shot to stardom in the 1950s.

Animal rights activists say abuse of animals is common on the island and that animal sacrifice is tolerated in some religious ceremonies.