Brigitte Bardot inheritance row deepens after private letter to partner leaked

A row over the inheritance of late screen legend Brigitte Bardot has intensified after a private letter was made public which appears to show her cutting off relations with her last partner. Dated November 2022 – three years before she died at her home in Saint Tropez – the hand-written note accuses Bernard de Chiara, her companion of more than 30 years, of "patiently destroying me day after day". A week ago de Chiara, who is 85, was forced to leave the seaside house known as La Madrague which he shared with Bardot from the early 1990s.

After being looked after financially by her for so many years, he is reported to possess neither a bank account nor a social security card. He was also furious after the Brigitte Bardot Foundation organised a sale in September of household objects mainly taken from the late actress's Paris flat. The sale raised nearly €1m (£835,000), shared 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.