Pierce Brosnan always has his wife’s back: Inside his marriage with Keely

There are many couples in Hollywood whose relationship doesn’t stand the test of time.

I can imagine it’s hard to live your life under the spotlight with the world and his wife documenting your every move, not to mention the critical voices on social media.

Known for playing the ultimate charmer onscreen, starring opposite many beautiful leading ladies, Pierce Brosnan is often portrayed as quite the Casanova. But behind the scenes, he is the ultimate family man and devoted husband.

The relationship that Bond star Pierce Brosnan has with his journalist, author and television host wife Keely Shaye Smith is one we can all aspire to.

After more than a quarter of a century together, the passionate duo still only have eyes for each other. Their marriage shows that despite fame, age, and all the physical changes that accompany it —  true love never dies.

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Pierce and Keely have been best friends, companions, and lovers for almost 30 years now. The couple began dating in 1994 and got married seven years after they first met at a bar in Mexico.

Keely and Pierce met when she was sent to interview Ted Danson and ended up connecting with Pierce instead.

Their very first date is something straight out of a romantic movie. According to Keely, they “sat down under the stars and he held my hand. There were fireworks going off over our heads, and Kenny Loggins was singing. We talked until 3 in the morning.”

“He was captivating,” Keely told People in 2001, according to PopSugar.

“Tall, dark and handsome, everything that everybody would immediately be attracted to. He had this mischievous sparkle in his eyes. I thought, ‘Wow! Wow!’”

Pierce immediately knew Keely was something very special.

“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 said.

Pierce and Keely had a romantic wedding in Ireland in 2001.

The idea was that the couple would tie the knot in 2000, but then Pierce’s 16-year-old son was involved in a traffic accident in the USA. As a result, he suffered a spinal injury, and his dad postponed the wedding ceremony.

But in the end, Pierce and Keely got their dream wedding in Ashford Castle – a stunning 13th-century Irish fortress. The newlyweds had invited 120 close friends and family to the fairytale hotel – but Pierce also paid for an intense security operation to keep the media and the public away.

Raising sons together

The couple has two sons and shares a passion for nature, working to prevent whaling and the destruction of our oceans’ inhabitants.

There is no doubt that Pierce and Keely were a match made in heaven – their two sons were born quite soon after the couple started dating.

Since then, Keely has continued to work hard with her own career while also doing a great job of taking care of the kids. Keely has also beautifully taken care of Pierce’s children from his previous marriage to Cassandra Harris, who died of cancer in 1991.

Keely Shaye Smith weight

Before she met Pierce, Keely had a career as a model, and she was also an actress back in the day. In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about Keely’s weight, especially in gossip magazines.

Everyone can probably see that she put on some weight, but who doesn’t when you get a little older? Some media reports say that Keely may have had problems with the thyroid gland, but I think she is radiantly beautiful.

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Sadly, Keely is often the target of cruel trolls over her changing shape. Meanwhile, the OO7 star says he still adores his “passionate” wife, who makes him “weak at the knees.”

”I found a great woman in Keely Shaye,” he said. ”Not if I searched a million times over would I find one as good.”

Some tabloids estimated that Kelly gained about 70 pounds after her marriage to Pierce. These speculations have also got people and media to speculate that Pierce would leave his wife. Still, the couple never attracted rumors of cheating and are constantly caught in public kissing and holding hands.

Of course, it’s not easy to handle trolls who have an opinion about Keely’s appearance and fat-shame her. But Pierce has always had his wife’s back, and he often shows his love for her in public – a testament to how much he loves Keely.

And it’s also so refreshing to have a woman in Hollywood who doesn’t use surgery to look younger. Keely seems confident in herself, and Pierce loves her wife for who she is.

The years have passed, and the two have changed physically, but the love, respect, and affection they both feel for each other remains the same.

They are not shy about showing their love for each other. Both Pierce and Kelly are active on social media and use Instagram to show their love.

For example, In 2021, Brosnan took to Instagram and wrote a touching post to his wife to celebrate her 58th birthday:

Today a lot revolves around the physical and the material things. That’s why it’s comforting to see how Pierce and Keely’s love is permanent and real.

Throughout his star-studded career appearing alongside some of Hollywood’s most beautiful women, Brosnan preferred to fly his wife to his filming locations so he could devote even more time to her.

“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.

Keely Shaye Smith is seen on August 30, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by BG002/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Pierce Brosnan has just finished playing the role of Dr. Fate in a sci-fi action movie Black Adam. In this role, the actor plays a superhero and sorcerer in the DC Universe.

However, the 69-year-old actor made sure to keep some things from his personal life the same as his role. He wore his wedding ring and a watch his wife Keely Shaye Smith had gifted to him many years ago.

He explained in an interview saying, “This is our wedding ring and this is a watch that Keely bought me many years ago with an inscription that [reads], ‘Time flies on love’s wings,’” He further added, “I decided to wear it for this character. It seemed appropriate.”

Keely Shaye Smith is seen on April 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images)

He explained that it was appropriate for his character as he had a wife too, which is why Brosnan decided to keep these personal items on during filming. He said,  “The man [has] traversed the ages of time. He’s one of the most powerful sorcerers in the DC comic book world. He did have a wife called Enza, and she was even more powerful than him I hear.”

His wife was obviously thrilled at the subtle yet sweet tribute her beloved husband gave to her in his latest film project. She said, “I love those emblems, that he took those with him into the superpower, superhero realm.”