A former Vietnamese refugee, Anh Dao Traxel, is a foster daughter of Bernadette and Jacques Chirac.

Since 2001, Bernadette has been the patron of Opération Pièces jaunes, a charity that helps children in French hospitals by collecting small donations.

In 2001, Bernadette Chirac participated in a series of transcribed interviews with the conservative journalist Patrick de Carolis.

Following her husband's death in 2019, she attended a private service at St. Louis Cathedral at Les Invalides, but was not present at the funeral mass held at the Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris.

In 1867, Napoleon III made Alphonse Chodron de Courcel a hereditary baron for services rendered to the State.