As Pierce Brosnan Celebrated 25 Years With His Wife, He Chose To Come Clean About His Marriage

For almost a decade, Pierce Brosnan played James Bond – a man not noted for his fidelity. But off screen, the actor has been a long-time devotee to just one woman: his wife Keely Shaye Smith. The pair have been together for 25 years, in fact, and on their anniversary Brosnan decided that he had something he wanted to say about his spouse.

Brosnan may have the looks of a playboy, but he’s actually anything but. And although the star has won plenty of female attention for his roles in Remington Steele, Dante’s Peak, The Thomas Crown Affair and the James Bond series, he’s seemingly only ever had eyes for the women he married.

Yes, Brosnan has actually been married twice. He met his first wife, Cassandra Harris, back in 1974 when he was still an aspiring actor; the future star got to know her through David Harris, a nephew of famous actor Richard Harris. “I saw [Cassandra] coming down the staircase and I thought, ‘What a beautiful-looking woman,’” Brosnan told Cigar Aficionado in 1997.

Then Harris became Brosnan’s wife in 1980, and they went on to have one child together; Brosnan also adopted her children, Charlotte and Chris, in 1986. And, interestingly, she was the one who had first suggested to Brosnan that he should play James Bond one day.

After 17 years together, Brosnan overcome his grief at her passing as his life and career continued. Firstly, he met another woman, a journalist named Keely Shaye Smith, who would later become his second wife. And secondly, he was given the role that would define him as an actor: James Bond in GoldenEye.

What’s more, over the next few years, Brosnan and Smith would have two children together: Dylan in January 1997 and Paris in February 2001. And Brosnan continued his acting career during this time, starring in two more Bond films: Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough.

Then Brosnan married Smith in August 2001, and it was a union that appeared to have had the full blessing of one of Brosnan and Harris’ children. “Just seeing the ultimate love that these two people have for each other was unbelievable,” their daughter Charlotte told People at the time. “My dad found it again, and that makes me happy.”

And Brosnan and Smith seemed to be happy too. And Brosnan even credited his new partner with helping him overcome his grief as well as being a huge support to him during periods of depression. Even another huge tragedy didn’t split them apart; in 2013 he also lost his daughter, Charlotte, who was just 41 at the time.

Yet even after all of that sadness, he and Smith continued to be, so it seemed, one of the healthiest and best-adjusted couples in Hollywood. Even Brosnan’s on-screen intimacy with other women reportedly made no difference to his bond with Smith. “My wife is very cool. She has a great sense of humor about it, a great sense of who she is as a woman and security and faith within me,” the star told the Daily Mirror in 2013.

However, the media sometimes took a snide tone when it came to Smith – for seemingly no other reason than because she wasn’t thin. Indeed, celebrity gossip website TMZ was once damning when it obtained pictures of Smith in a bikini. “Double Oh No,” the piece’s headline read – and the comments beneath the article were often even more scathing.

But Brosnan apparently didn’t mind how Smith looked. “I love my wife’s curves,” he told Vogue in 2006. So, no matter what was thrown at him and Smith – and it was a lot – their love endured. And when it came to the couple’s 25-year anniversary in 2018, that still appeared to be the case.

You see, in July 2018 Brosnan took to Instagram – on which he has more than 700,000 followers – to make a post in celebration of his and Smith’s relationship. “Thank you for the love, my love, of these past 25 years onwards,” he wrote. And not surprisingly, the missive gained lots of positive and congratulatory messages from Brosnan’s fans.

And Smith wrote a message to her husband on her Instagram page as well. For the post, she chose a picture of herself and Brosnan on their wedding day all those years ago, in which the pair look absolutely delighted and in love. “Happy anniversary @piercebrosnanofficial,” she wrote alongside a “prayer” emoji. “Life is beautiful with you in it!”

This public outpouring of affection between Brosnan and Smith isn’t totally unprecedented, however; Brosnan, for one, has praised his wife in interviews before. “I love her vitality, her passion. She has this strength that I wouldn’t be able to live without,” he told The Independent in March 2016. “When Keely looks at me, I go weak.”

And in People magazine in 2017, the actor gave the world a glimpse of what his marriage was like in day-to-day life. He and Smith had recently gone on a road trip together, Brosnan told the publication. “We didn’t listen to any music, but we just listened to the sounds of each other’s voices and sorted out the world,” he said.

Certainly, Brosnan and Smith appear to believe in sorting out the world. They’re dedicated environmentalists, for instance, and have previously teamed up with charities to help protect land and animals from industrialization. Brosnan has also donated proceeds from the sales of his artworks to environmental causes.

And in 2018 Smith directed a film about environmental issues called Poisoning Paradise; Brosnan, who served as executive producer, also supported her in the movie’s promotion. “Stepping out for another festival showing of Keely’s movie Poisoning Paradise,” he wrote on Instagram in February 2018. “Still working and loving life after 25 years.”

Indeed, Brosnan’s wife features strongly on his Instagram account. When he touched down in New York City to promote his film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, for instance, the picture he shared on the social media site was of both him and Smith. Likewise, images of Smith and Brosnan take pride of place on Smith’s Instagram.

So, while Brosnan and Smith have been through a lot, they nevertheless seem to be living proof that a Hollywood marriage really can work out. And throughout all of the years in which they’ve been a couple, there’s never been a hint of scandal come to light, either. Hopefully, then, the pair of them will have many more happy years together.