How Pierce Brosnan’s wife Keely Shaye saved him from his depression following the death of his wife and daughter – and why she still makes him ‘weak at the knees’
Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye have the strongest marriage in Hollywood - and the Bond actor admits he still fancies the pants off his "passionate wife" - hitting back at cruel trolls who have criticised her changing shape over the years
HE'S a multi-millionaire with the swagger of Bond, smouldering blue eyes and a chiselled jawline that even Zayn Malik would be jealous of - but Hollywood hunk Pierce Brosnan isn't your typical Hollywood superstar.
The 65-year-old Irish born actor has shunned the limelight in favour of candle-lit dinners with his wife of 25 years, Keely Shaye, 54.
The Bond star admits he still fancies the pants off his "passionate" missus who makes him "weak at the knees" - and is regularly featured in the cruel "worst bikini body" lists and has been trolled over her weight for years.
The couple are regularly snapped cycling along the beach hand-in-hand and kissing in public.
While they indulged in a 1.5M wedding in 2001 and share a postcode with multimillionaires including Kris Jenner, they now live a low-key life.
And while he may play love them and leave them double agent James Bond, Pierce has described his wife, who he met in a bar in Mexico in 1994 and tenderly calls "my girl", as "a strength I wouldn’t be able to live without."
Despite working alongside some of the most beautiful actresses in the world, including Halle Berry - the couple have never been hit with split or cheating rumours.
But it hasn’t been a smooth ride, and Pierce has described Keely, who is not your stereotypical Hollywood thin blonde, as his "North Star", after she guided him through a series of personal tragedies.
Here we look at how Keely, who shares two sons, Dylan, 20, and Paris, 17, with Pierce, have lasted the distance where so many other Hollywood couples fall down.
Mamma Mia!
Even now, as he reprises his role in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Pierce’s lack of usual Hollywood vanity is evident – the reason he has perhaps never thought to look twice at his female co-stars.
Instead his 677,000 Instagram followers praise him for sharing photographs of his family life, and doting over Keely.
On their 25th anniversary, Pierce shared a picture of him and Keely looking affectionately into each other’s eyes alongside the caption: “Thank you for the love my love of these past 25 years onwards.”
The couple now prefer to spend as much time as possible on the beach, which faces their £13 million, eco-friendly Malibu mansion, which is made from recycled wood and has a Zen garden complete with intricately carved doors and Buddha statues.
The couple are also keen environmentalists, and have been working alongside the Natural Resources Defence Council to prevent whaling and the killing of sea life.
And their shared passion could be behind the success.
It also helps that Pierce admits to fancying the pants off his wife.
“I love her vitality, her passion. When Keely looks at me I go weak at the knees,” he says.
The name's Bond. Faithful Bond
Even when Pierce landed his most-famed role as James Bond a year after they met 1995, he didn’t look twice at the infamously gorgeous Bond girls.
Instead he flew Keely, who was at the time working for NBC’s primetime show, Unsolved Mysteries, to wherever he was filming.
“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,” he recalls.
They attended the premiere of Golden Eye in London and New York, and were spotted with their arms around each other at A-list parties and polo matches.
Death, depression and despair
But it's not always been plain sailing for Hollywood's strongest couple.
Pierce lost his first wife of 11 years Cassandra Harris - the Bond Girl from For Your Eyes Only - to ovarian cancer in 1991.
The same devastating illness later took the couple’s daughter Charlotte in 2013.
Three years after the devastating death of his first wife, Pierce met Keely at a beach party.
At the time, she was a journalist and had flown out to interview Cheers actor Ted Danson, who had attended the same party.
When Ted left, Keely found herself talking to Pierce and the two hit it off.
“He was captivating. Tall, dark, and handsome. Everything that everybody would immediately be attracted to," she says.
"He had a mischievous sparkle in his eyes."
They shared their first date a few days later in Mexico, sitting under the stars as they held hands and talked until 3am.
The next few years the couple were snapped on red carpets and at Bond premieres across the globe.
But behind-closed-doors, Pierce was still crippled by grief and Keely became his rock.
The actor revealed to the Express in 2013 that she encouraged him to go through the mourning process.
“Keely has always been kind and compassionate and encouraged me to mourn Cassie," he said.
"I think of her all the time. I suppose Keely is my North Star, always looking out for me."
He later praised Keely’s "strength and vitality" for pulling him through the series of personal tragedies, admitting that the loss of two of the women he loved left him with a ‘glass half empty’ outlook.
“I don’t look at the cup as half full, believe me. The dark, melancholy Irish dog sits beside me from time to time,” he told Esquire.
“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."
The £1.5 million wedding
The couple married at Ballintubber Abbey in County Mayo, Ireland in 2001, just six months after welcoming son Paris.
Along with £100,000 worth of flowers and a seven-tier cake, Piers hired helicopters to escort the 100 guests to the abbey, where they had christened Paris the day before.
Pierce also organised a £30,000 firework display as a surprise gift for Keely, and in turn, she presented him with an elaborate ice sculpture of Rodin’s The Kiss.
The day reportedly cost around £1.5 million.
Pierce said on the day: “I found a great woman in Keely Shaye. Not if I searched a million times over would I find one as good.”
Their day was covered by Hello! Magazine, and the couple donated most of their coverage fee to building a school for Tibetan children.
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It's not known how Pierce and Keely will celebrate their momentous 25th anniversary, but they will undoubtedly spend it side by side.