Pierce Brosnan – *le sigh*. I find him so dreamy. And I’m not just talking about how I’ve swooned over his handsome face since his Remington Steele days. I find him charming, affable and relatable. Even though he readily admits his life has not always been charmed, one bit of beauty is his 25-year relationship with his wife Keely Shaye Smith. To note this milestone, he posted a lovely note to her on Instagram:
For those who don’t know, Keely is Pierce’s second wife. His first wife, Cassandra, succumbed to ovarian cancer in 1991. He adopted Cassandra’s two children, Charlotte and Chris, after their father died in 1986. Tragically, Pierce lost Charlotte to the same cancer as her mother in 2013. Pierce met Keely a few years after Cassandra’s death and they married in 2001, which will be 17 years this August. In total, they have four sons, Chris and Sean, his sons with Cassandra and Dylan and Paris, his sons with Keely. So what is the couple’s secret for success? Hanging out together.
The pair will celebrate yet another anniversary this summer: 17 years of marriage. Brosnan, 65, and Shaye Smith tied the knot in Ireland in August 2001. They share two sons together: Dylan, 21, and Paris, 17.
Even after over two decades together, the pair isn’t afraid to show off some PDA. And Brosnan often gushes over his wife, telling the Independent in March 2016, “I love her vitality, her passion. She has this strength that I wouldn’t be able to live without. When Keely looks at me, I go weak.”
He shared with PEOPLE last year that spending quality time together is a key ingredient of their happy marriage.
“My wife and I took a short road trip up to Santa Barbara — we were going for a romantic weekend and to look at houses and drink great wine,” Brosnan said at the time. “We didn’t listen to any music, but we just listened to the sounds of each other’s voices and sorted out the world.”
*Humble brag alert* My numbers are close to theirs – together 21 years, married 15. My advice is to never give ‘how to have a successful marriage’ advice but I do co-sign and spending quality time with your partner. Like phones-down, distractions-off quality time.
As is probably apparent, I like Pierce and Keely. They both have a good sense of humor about themselves and like I said, they acknowledge that life can be rough, but they celebrate what’s good about it. I’m usually not one for PDA, but Pierce and Keely don’t overdo it, more like they just get overcome by the moment occasionally. As he said, “When Keely looks at me, I go weak.” I mean come on – just reading that makes my knees give out. Happy anniversary, you two. Maybe you have many more years of going weak together.
Mama Mia! Here We Go Again opens today, so Pierce and Keely gifted us with this to celebrate:
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Instagram
Love him forever. Happy for them.
Same here. They are a beautiful couple.
Agreed. I love that he loves HER, literally in sickness and in health, etc. So many made/make comments about her size; it’s so refreshing to see a man (especially in Hollywood) who loves his WIFE, not a dress size, or a trophy to show off, but a PERSON.
I hope they have many more happy years together. Just think of how beautiful their grandkids will be! 😊
The math in this post does not add up.
Yeah. They apparently met in 1994 and married 10 years after Cassandra’s death.
None of it adds up to a 25th anniversary.
Eh, either they met a year earlier or he was off on his math (which happens)
Together 25 years, married for 17 I think…
It wasn’t explicitly stated in the article that I see, but yeah, together for 25 and married for 17 it seems.
Yes, married for 17 and together for 25 but you are all correct that the math is not adding up.I’ll check my notes and see where I went wrong and fix it. Thanks for the catch.
Can I blame new math?
(ETA – it was the decade part. One of the articles I referenced said a decade but it was only a few years)
Thanks, Hecate!
awwwww….nice post.
I like him, too.
And now someone will probably hop in and say, “how can you like him when he x? why are you pretending not to know about it?” So.
Let me try to head that off @Betsy. Yes, he was in a Roman Polanski movie (with Ewan McGreggor). Yes, that sucks. Yes, he’s still a very good man who has gone through huge tragedy with great dignity. Yes, I still love him.
Lol, thanks, @Mia4s. 😂
He’s one of those who isn’t a famewhore and doesn’t sell out his private life for attention. This is what I love about someone like him. He lives his life with his family and still has a good career. He proves the lie that celebrities have to regularly pap stroll and be in our faces constantly.
Obviously, he didn’t give in to all the nasty body shamers and he took heat for being with a larger woman. The cruelty was off the charts for a while and yet he defended her and ignored it. He supported her when she called people out for it. Unlike others in the public eye who seem to think their partner’s socially accepted looks are a reflection of their worth he just made the decisions that were right for him. I am not saying he deserves a medal of valor for being with Keely because that is just silly but I do like that he didn’t fold when the pressure to conform is extreme.
Can you imagine gaining weight in the public eye and everyone predicting that your husband is going to dump you for it?
He’s just not a person who does things to gossip about. No shady rumors of terrible behavior like Ewan M. Or seedy liaisons like Harvey W. No drunken abusiveness like Russell Crowe.
I am not saying he is perfect but I like the way he navigates his career in the public eye.
Honestly, the man is like a unicorn. Loved him since Remington Steele. A real mensch.
My mom has a huge crush on Pierce and I totally get it. Even better that he seems like a genuinely good dude.
I had no idea he had so much tragedy in his life. Those poor boys from his first marriage–they’ve lost their dad, mom and sister so young 🙁
Yes, so tragic.
What a class act. He marries an older women in Tinseltown and loves her to her dying breath and raises her children. Then he finds his second true love who decades later rejoices in the sound of her voice. Amongst all the relationships we read about, so full of narcissistic fluff, this man and the loves of his lives are things of storybook love stories. ….and they lived happily ever after.
Congratulations to them, amazing couple.
I love this couple so much.
Thanks for making my pregnant self tear up so early in the morning lol this is really sweet! It’s very sad that he experienced so much tragedy with his first wife’s passing and then his daughter (I know not bio related but it’s clear he treated her as his own) but I’m happy that this story has a happy ending 🙂
Well, he had adopted her, so she was his own.
Yes – thank you for saying that.
@ S – As LT says – Yes, thank you for saying that. A few years ago, at my parents’ fiftieth anniversary party, my uncle approached my brother and said “It was nice of you to attend given that you are not blood-related.” WTF?!
Congrats @HelloSunshine!!! There certainly seems to be a baby boom among us! As to your comment…I know, I’m quite the tiny tears in my hormonal self, happy, sad whatever, I could cry. As my grandpa used to say oh stop your crying, ah you won’t have to pee so much. Lol
I think you cast a spell or something. You and your sweet little twins. I can’t stop about the twins. I am still fascinated that a twin is having a twin.
Crying is how I always knew I was pregnant. I would start crying about every touching thing. Being late can be a lot of things but crying about mundane things was the clue. That and suddenly the smell of coffee made me want to throw up.
You forgot my mom is a twin too! I had heard twins skip generations. Not always…Ha! I have first cousins who are also twins and purely coincidentally they each married a twin, although they were not twins to each other. I don’t live in Twinsburg, Ohio either! I hate that dress alike crap, my mom didn’t do that to us, probably from her own experiences. You have coffee, for me it was my utter repulsion of that one particular pic of Khloe Kardashian. Lol…twinning, wombmate!!
Your mother is a twin too!!!
I have never heard of three generations of twins before.
We each have our external clues. Even if they ARE odd. lol For my sister it was tobacco.
Ha! Yeah, we’re a rare lot. Don’t expect to see me on TLC though…lol. When your mom is an identical twin, the odds go up that you will have twins as well the older you get, and am I’m not getting any younger!! Anyway, just jumped on while my little one is napping. My older kids are in Toronto. They have spent the summer traveling with my sisters and brothers when they vacay, as a healing method for my siblings and fun for the kids. This is this last hoorah. School starting soon. BYE…..you probably won’t see this!!
Haven’t seen him in a film in a while but it will be nice to see him in the Mamma Mia sequel. I heard his singing is better in this one too.
He and Tom Selleck are my Mom’s crushes. Congratulations to the happy couple and may you have many more years together.
We might have the same Mom. Haha!
Ha! Monica (Courteney Cox) is older than Tom Selleck was when he played Richard on Friends! I hated the narrative of him as Monica’s boyfriend, her parent’s friend seemed so weird. But I can see the attraction of him for moms.
Nancy – I liked Tom Selleck in that role. He was still pretty hot then. I’m the same age as Monica/Courteney and I totally understood the attraction. I don’t think he’s aging well, but my mom still swoons over him.
She was so tiny and he was so big, thick. I never believed their relationship. It creeped me out. She belonged with Chandler!! But he was an attractive man. I haven’t seen him in ages so don’t know how he looks now, but has to be in his 70’s, since Courteney is 53 or 54. Yipes.
Am I your mum, Mego? I love these two couples. Congratulations to the Brosnans. May you have another 25 years of happiness.
Tom Selleck can get it any time, any way, all day. That man! Good lord. The mustache and the crinkly eyes get me every time.
Pierce as Remington Steele was my first crush as a kid. Have no idea how my 7-year-old self managed such good taste (whenever we played house my “husband” was Remington Steele), but I still adore Brosnon. I always tell my actual significantly-older-than-me hubby, this is where my love of older men began.
Love seeing pictures of Pierce and Keely at their house on Kauai (partly because I’m jealous they have a house on Kauai), and have to adore a man in Hollywood who has stood by his wives and children through it all, and, wow, has this family been through the ringer.
In addition to everything mentioned in the piece, Pierce’s son, Sean, almost died when a car driven by his cousin drove off the side of a mountain. Pierce and Keely postponed their original wedding date for over a year to care for him.
In addition, the family house in Malibu burned down at some point. No one was injured, but if I recall correctly, they lost the custom-made Aston Martin car Pierce had been allowed to keep from one of his James Bond films.
And, yes, the whole “go weak when she looks at me” thing had me feeling butterflies, too. Sigh.
Lol i remember him on Remington Steele as well. He did a movie about 15 years ago, he partly produced it, about an irish father who tried to get custody for his kids in the Fifties in Ireland. Go look it up, highly recommend it. Anyways i was at the preview in Munich, and everyone was female at that evening. Everyone was hoping for PB to be on that stage that night, but he wasnt and everyone was hugely disappointed. So i almost came to see him once in my life, lol.
Aw that’s really sweet.
I was talking about him last night for some reason to H – maybe bc of Mamma Mia? And I made a comment about how attractive he was and H was like…..really? He’s so old. I was like…..he’s pretty damn sexy, lol.
As far as I’m concerned, he is in the Fine Wine club–he keeps getting better with age.
Agreed!
Exactly!!!! I think he’s better looking now than he was 20 years ago, lol.
Don’t know if I’d go that far. He’s 65 years old!! She is 54. It’s not fair that men still have women pining over them in their retirement years, while we women get cast aside MUCH earlier. He is attractive, but it’s the accent that gets me! Bond, James Bond.
I adore this couple. They beam in their pictures together. The way he talks about her…..
They look so happy together. They’re lovely.
I subscribe every word you wrote.
Ever since I read the story about his first wife, I’ve had a special place in my heart for Pierce. And I’ve been so happy for him and Keily. The way that man loves should be the definition of selfless and unadulterated love. I really want nothing but good fortune for them.
@S of course, sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything offensive or “other” about the situation!
@nancy thank you!! And same to you! Happy to see a baby boom on the board, the world could use some more CBers 😉
Politically incorrect to notice, but I also love him because his wife gained a lot of weight over their marriage, but he still loves and cherishes her, unlike the sleazy stars who are trading in their first wives for much younger models who are always a size 4. Many Hollywood wives are made up, coiffed, and “tweaked” within an inch of their lives, but Keely is a gorgeous, real gal whose husband cherishes her and lets the whole world know it.
Nah, I think it’s a fair observation given the context. I was just thinking about how this highlights the rarity of lasting marriages in the industry. He did lose a wife and daughter to cancer, however. That may be very grounding in terms of what really matters when it comes to health and physicality.
I came here to comment on the same thing. He could absolutely trade wives in for younger thinner models on the regular and no one would bat an eye. The fact that he loves a woman who is not Hollywood conventionally attractive and has been with her for decades tells me he’s a man of substance. I remember years ago reading the gossip on him and apparently he is one of the few men in Hollywood is who faithful and devoted to his wife. He didn’t care at all when she starting gaining weight.
Plus he’s gorgeous even in his old age. And that voice…….
I think to pretend it isn’t there is kind of forgetting all the cruelty and horrible trolling behavior they have endured for years. She was treated VERY viciously for gaining a lot of weight in the public eye and having the sheer audacity not to starve herself back into a size 6. Her early years are before my time so I didn’t realize until a few years ago that she had once been slender.
Recognizing the lengths celebrities go to in order to maintain thinness and youth in the context of Keely makes me admire her even more. She has more chutzpah and courage by just refusing to hide or buckle to social pressure than most people in the public eye have by miles.
It shouldn’t be that way but we all know how society works when policing women’s bodies.
Hot wealthy famous guys aren’t supposed to be with large women according to social rules and yet 25 years later here they are.
Well I had to do some looking myself @magnoliarose. Damn, she was very pretty and slender when they married. Then it appears, whether through lifestyle or pregnancies, she got very heavy. You’re right, it can’t be easy to be married to James Bond when the rags are goofing your appearance. At one point, she lost 105 pounds, but put most of the weight back on. But, she doesn’t let her appearance keep her away from the red carpets, etc. She seems comfortable in her own skin. Our country is obsessed with youth and beauty, and being thin is equated to beauty. I know (when not impregnated!), I watch my weight religiously, but not to the point of absurdity. Good for her, can’t be easy. *Her face hasn’t changed very much at all in 25 years…lovely*
Agree with everything you say here, magnolia. I too admire her, and they seem to have a simply wonderful marriage.
And they do a lot of charity work. She has been involved in so many worthwhile causes that it is even more offensive that she should have to deal with that nonsense.
I love their love. They seem to be so solid and a unit built on friendship.
Yup! Love everything you said.
He’s great, but I have a serious girl crush on Keely. She’s beautiful!
I agree!!!
All men don’t want skinny women. Keely has a warm, sensuous appeal.
100. A lot of men prefer a curvier woman. When I visit centers (from my work), it’s funny to hear mid-lifers with big beer bellies talk about how so and so should lose a few pounds. Take a look in the mirror bud!
Truth.
Yes yes yes! I’ve had that told to me and they were fat! I wanted to say wtf, youre fat? Do men not own a mirror?
Pierce is forever my crush. I just pretend as though I did not hear him singing in Mama Mia. Nope. It didn’t happen.
I did an event with him a few years ago, he’s ridiculously handsome in person.
Tom Selleck is my forever man crush despite the fact that he’s much older than me and I was about 7 years old when the crush developed.
I also had a mad crush on ‘Remmy’ and remember always being able to picture him as James Bond long before he ever was.
He’s such a likeable man.
I stayed in a hotel near Amalfi a few years back, went to give them an online review after and saw that Pierce and Keely had stayed in the same hotel a few months before. They were so gracious in their review and it wasn’t opulent at all, just nice views. They seem so down to earth! Loved him on Remington Steele but I guess I’m dating myself here 🙂
I’ve loved Pierce Brosnan since his Remington Steele says. I’m definitely going to see the new Mamma Mia movie (and am relieved to hear that they cut way back on his singing in this one).
I watched the Thomas Crown Affair with him as lead sooo many times because he’s so sexy in it!
Right! Thomas Crown is my FAVORITE. Such a sexy movie.
I feel a bit embarrassed to say this (though I know I shouldn’t!!) but I have the same body type as Keely Shaye Smith, and went on the same journey with weight — I was a size 6 when I got married 15 years ago, and now I am a size 16. So I really love these pics of Brosnan and Shaye Smith as happy and affectionate and loving, they are like role models for me. My H and I also are still madly in love but I often feel a tad ashamed of my body in public. In private I feel like I am fine, in fact, I think I am still very pretty and don’t mind the extra weight!! But in public, I tend to wonder if people are looking at me with judgy eyes. Well, Brosnan and Shaye Smith’s attitudes in these pics are like, “Look all you like, we’re happy just the way we are!” so I will borrow some of their courage! That’s the best attitude to have!
Don’t let society’s insane body policing ever make you feel ashamed or unworthy. Next time you feel that way just imagine you are so fabulous the world just needed a little bit more of you. We aren’t meant to be alike and beauty standards are an arbitrary farce made up by faceless people based on who the hell knows.
@magnoliarose thank you so so much — I will take your words to heart!!!!!
🙂 You are welcome.
is that their son in the photo!?! GOOD GRIEF what do the other three look like!!???
he is smokin hot
I love this couple! I have had a crush on Pierce since Remington Steele and he has only gotten more handsome. She is beautiful at any age or size. He and Keely have been through more tragedy than most people and I’ve known “regular” people who have broken up over less. Dealing with the loss of a child, no matter how old, and the near-death of another can break some of the strongest marriages. They seem truly in love and committed to each other. I am a bit jealous of Keely; I would love for a man to talk about me the way he talks about her!
I love this couple and their enduring affection for and appreciation of each other.
Also in the “I love” category — I love your posts, Hecate! This is the kind of stuff I really enjoy reading! Thanks so much.
+1
+2
I’d just like to say, she’s freaking beautiful. A couple of comments above say something like “she used to be so pretty and thin.” No, she used to be thin. She’s still pretty. Lord, it’s not like the woman is a troll under a bridge. She put on some weight as she aged. Still looks amazing and happy and loved.
Actually, Keely gained the huge amount of weight from the Hashimoto disease which is a thyroid condition.
I have a colleague, she is also dealing with it.
The meds really messed up her system.
People should be kind to Keely, it’s not like she let herself go and doesn’t care about her appearance and eats everything in site.
I looked up her bio and didn’t see anything about Hashimoto, but I believe you. What is cool, she wears bikinis and doesn’t try to hide her full figure at all. It’s everyone else that mocks her. Keyboard terrorists. She has the last laugh, she’s married to a handsome man who adores her after a quarter of a century!
Haha “keyboard terrorists”.
I had children pretty much back to back and I was at the store once and I had my two oldest, who were still babies really and I was pregnant with my third. I was very tired and harassed so I just grabbed whatever was around to put on because I needed to go to the market. So I was wearing my husband’s old t-shirt, a cardi, and some worn out loose yoga pants and I guess I just looked large all over or something because a woman approached me with diet advice. It was one of those days when I had no patience to spare and she pissed me off so much I wanted to run my cart into her ankles. Like who the hell are you and why do you feel free to talk to me about my body? I told her in 3 months I will lose about 9 pounds in one day and she scurried off shamefaced.
Then I look at Keely and imagine what it is like for her all the time. She seems to have gotten to a good place of acceptance but those early years had to be hard.
People are basically horrible. To give a total stranger diet advice just sucks. I had a friend who was heavy, she was in an elevator with some dude in her bldg. He said he could help her drop weight in two weeks. She said yeah, but then I’d have to be with you for two weeks…ha! I drop weight quick, thank goodness. I could never be like Keeley, ever. I’d be embarrassed, ashamed and all that stuff. She’s a tough girl not to give a sh!t, or at least give off that vibe. I’m much too vain, and even if it makes my husband sound like a creep, he would encourage me…haha to drop a few and I would!! Sunday Funday…..kids coming home tonight. Enjoy Magnoliarose…………..
You know what though. I am at the point where it doesn’t matter if she DOES have a big appetite. Some people like to eat and there isn’t always a tragic reason behind it. They like food and it makes them happy.
I am not saying this is her story but is it really worse if a woman says, “Nothing to see here folks, I just like food and I don’t want to spend 7 days a week in a gym so I accept myself. Yep, I am solid size 18 and I AM FINE WITH IT!” There is something gloriously defiant about that.
People with weight struggles or who have accepted themselves or whatever really shouldn’t be made to justify it to anyone. It isn’t our business WHY someone is larger. For women, it is much more difficult since it ties into ownership of our bodies but the way larger women are treated is vicious. They are challenged to nearly justify their existence and worthiness.
True dat. But how many people in HER business can do that. Melissa McCarthy or someone like her. IRL, I see women her size all the time that don’t seem to have the need to justify their size. If I knew someone that large, my concern would be solely for their health, but as my sister says (mind you she’s like 110 lbs.) skinny people die too! We live in an obese country, that’s basically what it amounts to. Either it bothers you or it doesn’t.