After 22 years, Pierce Brosnan spills the truth on marriage with his wife Keely

Pierce Brosnan and his wife Keely Shaye Smith (now Brosnan) have been happily married for decades. The couple met back in 1994, but just years earlier, the former 007 actor had suffered immense tragedy when his first wife died of cancer. 

Brosnan and his wife found each other, and they are still deeply in love. The couple have two children together, and it seems like nothing – not even work – can keep them apart.

While they undoubtedly have had their fair share of ups and downs, Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye know what a happy marriage is all about. Now, the actor shares news on what it’s really like and why it’s been a spiritual journey, too.

When you think of a classy James Bond, it’s safe to say that the name Pierce Brosnan comes to mind. The 007 star is known for his many memorable acting performances, and not to be forgotten, his fantastic and lovable persona.

Pierce Brosnan – early life

Meanwhile, Pierce Brosnan has had a very successful career in the entertainment business; the well-renowned actor has gone through some very tough times throughout his life. It all started when he was an infant, as his father, Thomas, who worked as a carpenter, abandoned him and his mother, May.

Pierce was left with his grandparents in Ireland when his mother moved to London to look for work when he was only four years old.

“There were two lodgers — workingmen, one in the factory and one in the sawmill,” Pierce Brosnan recalled in an interview with Esquire. “I had a metal bed with a curtain around it…. That was my room and my haven and my space.”

Already back then, he loved films, mostly American Westerns, and dreamed of a future career in the acting industry. It’s sure to say that his dream came true.

Pierce Brosnan and his father reunited in 1984 when he was 31.

“I had a Sunday afternoon with him,” he says. “A story about this and that, had a few pints of Guinness, and we said goodbye,” he recalled. “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.”

Pierce Brosnan left for London at 15 and later began studying at drama school. There, he met his first wife, Cassandra Harris.

Harris, an Australian, had moved to London with her two children, Charlotte and Christopher. The couple fell in love – and married in 1977. He would also adopt her children as his own.

“I want my children to have love in their life when they are young. I want them to know the true meaning of love,” Brosnan once said.

Tragic death of his first wife, Cassandra Harris

Cassandra Harris became the first person in their family to ever star in a Bond movie. She starred as the Bond girl in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only, acting alongside Roger Moore. There, Pierce Brosnan met the producer of the Bond filmography, Albert R. Broccoli, who would later help him get the role of James Bond.

In 1983, Pierce and Cassandra welcomed their first child together, Sean. But sadly, it didn’t take long before tragedy struck.

While Pierce Brosnan was in India shooting a film, Cassandra fell ill. Not long after, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Cassandra Harris passed away in 1991, and Pierce was left alone with their three children.

“When your partner gets cancer, then life changes. Your timetable and reference for your normal routines and the way you view life, all this changes. Because you’re dealing with death. You’re dealing with the possibility of death and dying,” he said after her death, as quoted by Metro.

“And it was that way through the chemotherapy, through the first-look operation, the second look, the third look, the fourth look, the fifth look. Cassie was very positive about life,” he added.

Brosnan said his family “cherished every moment.”

“Cassie was very positive about life,” he continued. “I mean, she had the most amazing energy and outlook on life. She could read people extremely well. She had, above all, the greatest sense of humor. She had this wonderful laugh, which her children have inherited.”

Pierce Brosnan struggled with this tragic loss but continued to be the best father possible. Not long after, the actor would meet the woman he has credited with saving his life.

Pierce Brosnan & Keely Shaye Smith – love story

During a trip to Mexico in 1994, Brosnan met Keely Shaye Smith. She worked as an actress but later transitioned into journalism and documentary filmmaking.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 1995, Keely explained that she worked as a model when she was younger but decided to change course. “I realized at some point I was propagating a beauty myth, so I left modeling and acted for a year,” she said.

It did not take long before Pierce and Keely fell in love. Speaking with People in 2001, She explained that she found Pierce Brosnan “captivating.”

“[He was] “tall, dark, and handsome — everything that everybody would immediately be attracted to. He had this mischievous sparkle in his eyes. I thought, ‘Wow! Wow!’” Keely said.

“I understand why women find him sexy, because he is an appealing man. He really likes and appreciates women. … He’s intelligent, captivating and his real beauty emanates from the soul. And, like a fine wine, he’s aging beautifully.”

Meanwhile, Pierce Brosnan felt the same. The wound and heartbreak about losing Cassandra was, of course, not, and maybe will never be, fully healed. But according to him, Keely “saved him,” calling her his “North Star.”

“I had a great marriage which sadly had its own ending, and I was lucky enough to find love again. We were meant to find each other. I thank God for her every day,” Brosnan told Closer Magazine in January 2018. “When Keely looks at me, I go weak. I love her vitality, her passion. She has this strength that I wouldn’t be able to live without.”

Keely “saved” Pierce Brosnan

Pierce had previously admitted that meeting Kelly “saved” him at a time when he was deep into a depression. He would do anything to see her, even when his career took off.

“Wherever I went in the world, I missed her, and I’d send her tickets to come so we could be together. We just seemed to fit,” Brosnan said. “I found a great woman in Keely Shaye. Not if I searched a million times over would I find one as good. “

A year after the couple met, Pierce Brosnan became James Bond with the entire world as he got the role of 007. He and his then-girlfriend Keely were on a whole different life journey, and in 2001, they tied the knot in a gorgeous ceremony in Ballintubber Abbey in Ireland

Four years earlier, the couple welcomed their first child, Dylan, and in 2001 Paris Brosnan was born.

Pierce Brosnan’s daughter Charlotte, whom he adopted when he and Cassandra Harris married, was a bridesmaid at their wedding. Sadly, in 2013, Pierce and his family would go through another tragedy, as Charlotte passed away from ovarian cancer, just like her mother.