Pierce Brosnan, 73, has an illustrious acting career, starring in classics like James Bond and Mamma Mia!, but before his Hollywood breakthrough, the star had quite the tough time growing up.
His tricky upbringing involved him seeing his own mother only twice a year. Instead, he lived with his grandparents in Navan in Ireland, while his mother May studied in London to be a nurse.
© AFP via Getty ImagesPierce was born in 1953 and when he was a toddler, his father, Thomas, left the family home, so this was when he was forced to go and live with his grandparents. My father took off for the hills very early. And academically, my school days were pretty tough," he said to the Irish Times.
Speaking about his childhood, the actor told The Guardian: "Because I was so solitary and we lived on the outskirts of town, across the River BoyneI, I was an outsider. An only child."
© Alamy Stock PhotoSadly, then his grandparents died, and he was forced to move into lodgings. "I was sent to live with a woman named Eileen, who had a place in a poor part of town. She had her own children and I moved upstairs with the lodgers, all grown men with jobs. One worked in the mill. One worked in a bank.
"The three lodgers stayed in a long room with iron beds with old mattresses. At the end of the room, there was my little bed, with a curtain around it, so the light wouldn't shine in when the older guys came home," he told the publication.
Pierce Brosnan's children
© Variety via Getty ImagesThe Irish star went on to have five children of his own, and he shares sons Dylan and Paris with his wife, Keely Shaye Brosnan. He also had three children with his first wife, Cassandra Harris - Christopher, Charlotte and Sean. Cassandra died from cancer aged 43, and her daughter Charlotte sadly died from the same cancer aged 41.
In an honest chat about losing his wife and his daughter, Pierce told Entertainment Tonight: "I held the generous, strong, beautiful hand of my first wife Cassie as ovarian cancer took her life much too soon. Just last year, I held the hand of my funny, wonderful daughter Charlotte before she, too, died from this wretched inherited disease."
In an interview with Esquire in 2017, Pierce opened up about being a dad. "They relate back to no one, because there was no one. I only met [my dad] the once. … I had a Sunday afternoon with him."
