Pierce Brosnan has reflected on his marriage of almost 24 years to his wife Keely Shaye Smith, saying she has given him “wings to fly”.
The former James Bond star, who is currently promoting his new film The Unholy Trinity, said: “Keely and I love each other and are blessed to have each other as companions in this life.
“And we’ve created a good life for ourselves of hard work and perseverance of life.”
Speaking about the secrets to a long marriage, he told Fox News Digital: “You know, it’s just solving one problem after the [other], whether it’s the washing machine or how far the finances are going to go or what your dreams are. But, ultimately, we just enjoy each other’s company enormously.”
He continued: “She’s given me wings to fly and lets me, you know, gallivant around the world here making movies.”
Mamma Mia! star Pierce and Keely met in 1994 and tied the knot in Ireland in 2001. They share two sons – Dylan, 28 and Paris, 24 – and will celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary in August.
Keely is a former model and actor. In 2016, Keely made her directorial debut with the film Poisoning Paradise, which looked at toxic environmental practices in Kauai, Hawaii, where the couple live for some of the year.
Pierce was previously married to Australian actor Cassandra Harris from 1980 to her death from ovarian cancer in 1991, aged 43. The pair had one child together, Sean, 41. Pierce also adopted Harris’s children from her previous marriage – Charlotte, who died aged 42 also from ovarian cancer, and Christopher, 52.
In the western film The Holy Trinity, Pierce plays Gabriel Dove, an Irish immigrant sheriff in 1870s Montana, alongside Samuel L Jackson, Brandon Lessard and David Arquette, as well as the two sons he shares with Keely – Dylan and Paris.
The actor recently defended his Irish accent in the Paramount+ gangster series MobLand, after viewers called it “utterly ridiculous”, even though he is actually Irish.
He argued that his performance as the fictional mob boss Conrad Harrigan – who is from Kerry on Ireland’s south west coast – required a broader Irish accent than his own east coast County Louth accent.
“My own accent is very soft. Conrad’s accent is a million miles away from me,” he told Radio Times, adding that his voice training was based on a real accent and that he worked with a dialect coach.
“I told him that I needed a Kerry accent,” he said. “So he gave me the name of a man and I Googled the guy and that was it. It was a Kerry accent. And so, I just gave it full tilt.”
