On 16 October 1965, 18-year-old Birkin married British composer and conductor
John Barry, 13 years her senior, in a private ceremony at
Chelsea Register Office, London. They met in 1964 when Barry cast Birkin in his musical
Passion Flower Hotel. Their daughter was photographer
Kate Barry (1967–2013). Barry "turned out to be a cold and unfaithful husband" and Birkin wrote in her diary, aged 19, "The feeling of being unwanted, undesired and unloved is beginning to strangle me". She said she was insecure during the relationship and "couldn't believe that this sophisticated, talented genius chose [her] and not any of the other girls." She did not want him to see her with her "tiny, piggy eyes" so she would sleep with an eye pencil under her pillow and put it on if he woke up in the night. He eventually went to the United States and left Birkin with their daughter in England. but never married, despite rumours and misreporting to the contrary. She eventually became a French citizen. She described him as "a very difficult man to live with", and said that during recording sessions he would scream at her and hit her with a ruler if she could not sing a part. She took credit for helping him to develop his style later in life, saying: "It's all about me, he listened to me a lot." On 4 September 1982, she gave birth to her third daughter,
Lou Doillon, from her relationship with director
Jacques Doillon. She said: "Meeting Jacques was a real turning point in my career. In my private life, after I left Serge, Jacques and I lived together for thirteen years, and had Lou." Birkin said that Doillon lost interest in casting her in his movies, and she felt "pain for Jacques going off with all these young girls making all these films all the time". Later, Birkin had a relationship with French writer
Olivier Rolin. Birkin became a political activist, and joined protest marches through the streets of Paris against racism and in defence of illegal immigrants. She also supported Palestinian rights,
Amnesty International and the fight against
AIDS. Birkin often spent time with her six grandchildren. Her daughter, Kate Barry, died in December 2013 after falling from her own fourth floor Paris apartment in what was suspected to be a suicide. Birkin mainly resided in Paris from the late 1960s onward. In 2020, recalling 1970s Paris, she said: "it was a time of great innocence, and I don't think social problems were as they are today."
Death and Jane Birkin in
Cimetière Montparnasse in Paris On 16 July 2023, Birkin was found dead at home in Paris. She was 76. Many fans gathered to watch the ceremony on a large screen outside of the church. France's First Lady
Brigitte Macron and Minister of Culture
Rima Abdul Malak,
Catherine Deneuve and her daughter
Chiara Mastroianni;
Vanessa Paradis;
Maïwenn;
Sandrine Kiberlain;
Carole Bouquet;
Charlotte Rampling and
Anthony Vaccarello were among those who attended.
Philanthropy Birkin's humanitarian interests led her to work with
Amnesty International on immigrant welfare and the
HIV/AIDS epidemic. Countries she visited included
Bosnia,
Rwanda and
Israel.
Political views and activism As a child, Birkin demonstrated in the streets of London against
capital punishment. In the 1970s, she campaigned for the right to abortion and appeared at the Bobigny trial in support of four women accused of having helped the high school student
Marie-Claire Chevalier to have an abortion following a rape. Birkin participated in nationwide protests denouncing the qualification of far-right candidate,
Jean-Marie Le Pen. In 2017, she performed at a free concert at the
Place de la République organised in opposition to Le Pen in the
2017 presidential election. In late 2022, Birkin, among other French women, cut her hair in support of
Iranian women and girls who had been killed in
protests at the death of
Mahsa Amini after her arrest by
Iranian morality police. == Awards and honours ==