Brigitte Bardot says she is still alive today thanks to a "miracle."
The Contempt star, 91, shared in a new documentary titled Bardot that she has struggled with depression throughout her life -- including during the heights of her fame -- and tried multiple times to die by suicide, according to The Sunday Times.
"I was taking my own life, and I was saved by a miracle," Bardot shared in the documentary that began screening in France on Wednesday, Dec. 3, per the outlet. Though she did not elaborate on what exactly that miracle was.
The former actress and current animal rights activist, who is known for starring in films like 1956's And God Created Woman and 1960's The Truth, also opened up in the documentary about dealing with loneliness after shooting to stardom and how she coped with her status as a global sex symbol in the 1960s.
She admitted in the film that the depression she felt back then was something that she still deals with today, saying, per the Sunday Times, "Every morning I wake up, and I am sad." However, despite all the challenges she's faced, she noted that there was at least one silver lining: her love for animals.
"I don't care if people remember me. What I would really like is for people to remember the respect we owe to animals," Bardot shared in the documentary. "The more I advance in my life, the more I fear humans. I'm more animal than human."
This isn't the first time the Love on a Pillow star has opened up about her struggles in life. In her autobiography, Initiales BB, published in 1995, she detailed other attempts to die by suicide, according to The Guardian, which also claimed that the text alluded to potential alcohol abuse.
"When you live such intense moments as I have done, there is always a bill to pay,' she said, according to a translation from the outlet, adding, "You cannot escape the distress which follows great happiness."
Bardot's new documentary comes a few months after the former star was hospitalized in Toulon, France, due to health concerns for nearly three weeks in October, according to French newspaper Var-Matin. That same month, she dispelled rumors that she had died, writing in a translated post X, "... I am doing well and I have no plan on taking my bow."
Var-Martin reported on Oct. 16 that Bardot had undergone surgery at a private hospital "as part of a serious illness." The following day, Bardot's office said in a statement to the French news agency AFP, via Reuters, that Bardot's "minor surgery" had gone well and that she was resting at home.
The actress and singer started her career as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 at the age of 15. The opportunity presented an offer to act in director Marc Allégret's film Les Lauriers sont coupés.
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Throughout the 50s and 60s, Bardot would go on to become an international star and was seen as a sex symbol of her time. She continued acting throughout the '60s and '70s, starring in her first Hollywood film, Dear Brigitte, in 1965 opposite James Stewart.
Since retiring from acting, Bardot moved her focus to animal rights through the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, created in 1986, which is a French NGO with the mission of protecting wild and domestic animals.
However, she has also made headlines in recent years for various controversies. In 2008, she was convicted of provoking discrimination and racial hatred after writing that Muslims are destroying her country. She also spoke out against the #MeToo movement in 2018, calling women who had exposed sexual harassment in Hollywood "hypocritical, ridiculous and uninteresting."