Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan has credited his ‘good Irish genes’ for his youthful appearance as he enters his sixties.
The former James Bond actor was named the sexiest man in the world in 2001 and is pleased his looks have not yet faded.
He turned 60 last year, and spoke to Woman’s Weekly about how he is coping with life as an elder statesman: “I do seem to have some good Irish genes although I think I’ll wake up one morning and the door will hit me on the back of the head, my teeth will fall out, my hair will fall, and it will be all over. It’s just life.
“They say growing old ain’t for sissies. It’s true. The older you get, the stronger you have to get. You just have to accept certain things and make peace with it and get on with it.”
Brosnan was raised by his grandparents in the town of Navan in County Meath, before moving to London to be reunited with his mother, who was already working there as a nurse.
He now lives between his two homes in Malibu and Hawaii with his second wife Keeley and their two sons. He spoke about his happiness at finding love again, after his first wife Cassandra died of cancer in 1991.
“I think we meet the people we’re supposed to meet. I’m the luckiest man to have found such a beautiful woman with such compassion and intelligence and love for life. I thank God for her and the kids every day.
“Keely is an environmentalist and I’ve always enjoyed the outside life so we’re bringing our kids up with a respect for nature, I even learned to surf a couple of years ago.”
Brosnan and his family are very close, and he says they helped him deal with the pain of losing his daughter to cancer last year: “We all have our ‘black dog’ days but we just have to work through them. It helps that I am a family man because they are a great support to me.”
Brosnan was recently in France to shoot his latest film Love Punch, in which he stars opposite Emma Thompson, although he admitted he felt a bit isolated between takes as he can’t speak the language: “Emma speaks French and I don’t. There’s no excuse because I had eight months off before we did the film and I had the choice of either learning French or how to play the piano and I learned how to play the piano.
“Once we got to France, Emma was off talking to people everywhere and I was left there like a silent Irishman with nothing to say for myself.”
