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Gone, but not forgotten. Pierce Brosnan marked the seventh anniversary of his daughter Charlotte’s death on Sunday with a moving message and image, taken by his wife Keely Shaye Smith, on social media. “Here’s looking at you kid... in remembrance of Charlotte,” the former James Bond actor, 67, penned alongside a photo of himself lounging on the porch of his home in Hawaii. Pierce also used the post to celebrate his son Sean Brosnan’s daughter Marley May, who turned five this month. He wrote: “And with happy birthday wishes for my darling Marley May.”
Pierce’s daughter died of ovarian cancer in 2013 at the age of 41. At the time of her death, the Hollywood star released a statement (via New York Daily News) saying, “On June 28 at 2 p.m. my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer.”
“Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humility, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl,” the Mamma Mia! star added. “We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon.”
Charlotte’s mother Cassandra Harris, who was Pierce’s first wife, died of the same cancer in 1991. Cassandra had two children, Charlotte and Christopher, from a previous marriage to Dermot Harris. After Dermot died in 1986, Pierce adopted his wife’s children and they took his last name. The Die Another Day actor and Cassandra welcomed their son Sean in 1983. Following Cassandra’s death, Pierce married his second wife Keely in 2001. The couple share sons Paris Brosnan, 19, and Dylan Brosnan, 23.
One year after Charlotte’s passing, Pierce spoke to Entertainment Tonight at the Stand Up To Cancer telethon about losing loved ones to the “insidious” disease. “To watch someone you love have his or her life eaten away bit by bit by this insidious disease, that part of your sorrow becomes an indelible part of your psyche,” he said in 2014. “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.”