Medical personnel called as Brigitte Bardot has breathing issue in St. Tropez heat

First responders were called to the St. Tropez home of cinema icon Brigitte Bardot, who reportedly suffered a breathing issue Wednesday at her French residence.

The 88-year-old actor, long idealized for her looks and liberating sex symbol status, had to be put on oxygen and monitored by health professionals, according to her husband of 30 years, Bernard d’Ormale.

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“It was around 9 a.m. when Brigitte had trouble breathing,” d’Ormale told local outlet Var-matin. “It was stronger than usual but she didn’t lose consciousness… the firemen came and gave her oxygen and then stayed to monitor her.”

He believed that high temperatures stifling France and baking much of Southern Europe contributed to his wife’s health scare. (Residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations Tuesday were warned to stay indoors during the hottest hours of the day as the second heat wave in two weeks hit the region and as Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires.)

“Like all people of a certain age, she can no longer stand the heat,” he said, referring to Bardot’s breathing issue as “a moment of respiratory distraction.”

Bardot rose to prominence in the 1950s with the films “Act of Love” (1953), “And God Created Women” (1956) and later Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” (1963). The model and actor retired from acting in the 1970s when she was 39 and has since devoted her time to animal rights activism.

The fashion icon started the Fondation Brigitte Bardot in 1986 to support those efforts, initially financing the foundation by auctioning her jewelry and other personal items, Deadline reported. She has lived a mostly private life otherwise, but has made headlines when she has reemerged to address polarizing topics, including what she deemed the “hypocritical” #MeToo movement. She was fined repeatedly for “inciting racial hatred” and also put on trial for using racial slurs.

The actor more recently took to Twitter to pay tribute to her contemporary, actor and singer Jane Birkin, who died in Paris at age 76.

“I am really sad. Jane is gone,” she said in French in a handwritten note posted Sunday on her account. “When one is so pretty, so fresh, so spontaneous, with the voice of a child, one doesn’t have the right to die. She will remain forever in our hearts.”

Representatives for Bardot and her foundation did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times’ requests for comment.