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He’s one of the biggest stars to come out of Ireland after his time as James Bond sent him into dizzying heights of fame.
After achieving worldwide success as the secret agent in four films for the franchise, Pierce Brosnan went on to star as the lead in Dante’s Peak before securing other roles in The Ghost Writer and Mamma Mia! as well as the latter’s sequel and more recently Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga.
The actor, 71, is currently on the press tour for the Guy Ritchie‘s upcoming organised crime drama MobLand.
However away from the flashing cameras, dramatic sets and glitzy red carpet events, Pierce has endured a tragic personal life.
The star lost his first wife Cassandra Harris to ovarian cancer in 1991 when she was just 43 years-old – just a day after their 11th wedding anniversary.
Tying the knot in 1980, the Australian-born actress, known as Cassie to friends and family, already had a daughter named Charlotte and a son called Christopher when she met Pierce.
After their biological father Dermot Harris died in 1986, Pierce officially adopted the children.
In 1983, the couple also welcomed their son, Sean William Brosnan.
Speaking about how her memory lives on a year after her death he told People: ‘She has made me the man I am, the actor I am, the father I am.
‘She’s forever embedded in every fibre of my being. She’s there with me every day. I was so blessed to have met someone like that.’
He also spoke of the ‘incredible cruelty’ of losing someone so close to him and with whom he shared so much.
‘This is the first time in my life I’ve ever experienced bereavement, and it’s overwhelming,’ he said.
As he spoke about Cassandra’s 18 month-long battle with the aggressive cancer in raw detail, he revealed how their youngest son Sean would ‘play doctor’ and would nurse his mother after chemotherapy sessions when she was feeling nauseous and fatigued.
He also recalled the heartbreaking moment his wife of 14 years died in his arms while Charlotte, who was studying at RADA in London at the time, was on the phone and Christopher joined him in the room.
‘We were all together. And that’s how she went to God,’ he said.
After Cassie’s passing, Pierce later found love again with American journalist, author, actress and model, Keely Shaye Smith.
Over the year’s fans have been particularly touched by how Keely, who shares sons Paris and Dylan with the actor, has supported her husband as he continued to grieve over his first wife.
Speaking to the Irish Times in 2013, Pierce said: ‘Keely has always been kind and compassionate and encouraged me to mourn Cassie. … I suppose Keely is my North Star, always looking out for me.’
Yet tragedy struck again in 2013 after his eldest daughter Charlotte died from ovarian cancer, the same disease which claimed her mother’s life 21 years earlier. She was just 42 years old.
Announcing her death in a statement, he said: ‘On June 28 my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer.
‘She was surrounded by her husband Alex, children Isabella and Lucas and brothers Christopher and Sean.
‘Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl.
‘We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon. We thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences.’
The Irish actor reportedly flew back from Eastern Europe, where he had been filming spy thriller November Man, to the UK to be at his daughter’s bedside.
In 2014, Pierce opened up on Stand Up For Cancer’s LA telethon about the profound loss Cassandra and Charlotte had left after they lost their battles.
The Irish born star said on The Dolby Theatre stage: ‘To watch someone you love have his or her life eaten away bit by bit by this insidious disease, that kind of sorrow becomes an indelible part of your psyche.
‘I held the generous, strong, beautiful hand of my first wife Cassie as ovarian cancer took her life much too soon.
‘And just last year, I held the hand of my funny, wonderful daughter Charlotte before she too died from this wretched, inherited disease.’
Later speaking to Esquire Magazine in 2017 he discussed how his life has forever been effected after losing the women dear to him.
He explained: ‘I don’t look at the cup as half full, believe me. The dark, melancholy Irish black dog sits beside me from time to time.’
Pierce also spoke out about how he found strength in his faith to help him ‘survive the pain’ following Charlotte’s death.
He explained to German newspaper Bild at the time: ‘That’s all you have left when your heart is just a dark hole at four in the morning and you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.
‘No one can escape life’s pain. That’s life.’
His second wife Keely has also supported him through the loss of his daughter, after he told the Irish Mirror: ‘Love is just the most beautiful, joyous feeling. It can come from many places.
‘Hopefully the one who is beside you, the one who is there on the pillow beside you in the morning – my wife.’
He added: ‘We seem to do well at being together and being in love and, more importantly, liking each other. The like factor is a great thing. Love cannot burn constantly.
‘It’s very hard for it to be so intense. But it’s wonderful. I tell her I love her everyday. It’s important to say that.’
As well as suffering multiple losses, Pierce also grew up without a father figure after his dad Tom abandoned the family shortly after he was born.
He recalled that he only met Tom once as he filmed Remington Steele in Ireland in 1984.
Speaking to Esquire, he added: ‘My fatherly instincts are purely my own. They relate back to no one, because there was no one.’
‘I only met Tom the once, I had a Sunday afternoon with him. A story about this and that, had a few pints of Guinness, and we said goodbye. I would have loved to have known him. He was a good whistler and he had a good walk…That’s as much as I know about him.’
