This boy grew up as an only child in a “fractured family.”
He was raised by his maternal grandparents as his mother worked in a foreign country, and his father abandoned the family when he was still a baby.
Despite the adversities, he grew up to become a bonafide showbiz star and is now a proud family man.
This young boy grew up to be a world-famous action movie star. This comes despite the hardships he experienced growing up, as his parents barely raised him, and his father was not even a part of his life.
The boy was born in May 1953 in the rural village of Drogheda, Co Louth, to parents May and Thomas. His mother worked as a nurse, and his father was a carpenter.
When the boy was four years old, his mother left for work in London in pursuit of a better life, so he was mainly raised by his maternal grandparents. The youngster spent the first 12 years of his life in Navan, which he considers his hometown. He lived with his maternal family, including his aunt, uncle, and grandparents, and then in a boarding house, where he revealed:
“I had a metal bed with a curtain around it…. That was my room.”
In 1964, he joined his mom and her new spouse in East Lothian, and they soon moved to London. The move became challenging for the boy, who experienced a culture shock and once explained:
“There were no siblings. I was an only child from a fractured family. My father took off for the hills very early.”
The boy unfortunately did not meet his father until he was 31 years old. He was filming a movie in his native country, and his dad showed up one day.
The father-and-son duo had tea together and later drank Guinness. Tom later left on a bus, and his son revealed, “I never saw him again. He died.”
As for acting, it happened unexpectedly for the boy because it took a while for him to figure out what to do with his life while in school. He trained for over three years at the London Drama Centre.
The boy once divulged that his beloved mother, Mary, was overly “supportive” of his career choice. She always told him to follow his dreams, and he strongly desired to make films.
Who Is This Boy Who Grew up to Be One of Hollywood’s Biggest Stars?
The boy who endured a difficult childhood is Pierce Brosnan, who, despite his past, became a renowned star in show business. He was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2001 thanks to his leading man status. The actor is best known for his starring roles in James Bond films, which he appeared in from 1995 to 2002.
Apart from his successful acting career, Brosnan is also a family man who has been married twice and became a dad of five children. His first wife was Australian actress Cassandra Harris, whom he wed in 1980.
The couple shared three kids together: his stepdaughter Charlotte and their sons Sean and Christopher. Sadly, Harris passed away in 1991 from ovarian cancer, and her daughter died several years later in 2013 from the same disease.
After losing his first wife, Brosnan found love again when he met environmental journalist Keely Shaye Smith in 1994. The couple married in 2001 and welcomed two sons, Paris and Dylan.
Brosnan paid a heartfelt tribute to his children in a June 2022 Instagram post. The producer shared a picture posing with three of his four sons and captioned it:
“My love forever to you, dear sons, Paris, Dylan, Sean, and Christopher. Thank you deeply for your love on this Father’s Day.”
Brosnan, who previously posted a throwback photo from his childhood and captioned it, “Irish boy,” spoke candidly about parenting sons in an April 2017 interview.
The father of five described the journey as a “very arduous road,” adding that his parental instincts are solely his own because, growing up, he had no one to look up to and pick up such things from.