Pierce Brosnan says growing up without a "father figure" made him "cherish" his own family.
The former James Bond star and his wife Keely Shaye Smith Pierce have two sons, Dylan, 24, and Paris, 20, together, whilst Pierce also has son Sean, 37, and adopted son Chris, 48, as well as his late adopted daughter Charlotte with his late wife Cassandra Harris.
The 68-year-old Irish actor's carpenter father Thomas Brosnan abandoned his family when the future screen star was just an infant and the the absence of his own dad made him want to be the best parent he could be.
In an interview with the Summer 2021 issue of Gentleman's Journal (Thegentlemansjournal.com), he said: "I cherish family very much. I cherish being a father. I did not grow up with a father figure or with a solid family.
"There was deep fracture, a certain isolation and an aloneness which wielded the wonderful power of my imagination. I had to get by on my own sensing and intuition.
"So I value and love the family. Keely is the most amazing mother and woman — I’ve watched her grow up over 27 years, watched our life together just blossom and grow. And there are still many more dreams to be had."
Pierce adopted his first wife Cassandra's children Chris and Charlotte after their father Dermot Harris died in 1986.
'Four Your Eyes Only' star Cassandra tragically died of ovarian cancer at the age of just 43 in 1991, and her daughter Charlotte also sadly passed away from the same illness in 2013 when she was just 42.
The 'Golden Eye' star also opened up on his and his family's experience of COVID-19, admitting that he experienced both the best of quarantine and worst of the pandemic.
Pierce - who spent his period of isolation on the the island of Kauai in Hawaii - said: "'Last summer was also actually a great summer.
"Ironically. Because we were in lockdown on the island. I painted, I gardened, I swam. And we did that every day. And Keely cooked meals and we took walks.
"But all of this amidst the terrible pandemic and this font of anxiety that people lived with every day - this acute awareness of suffering and pain.
"I lost two friends to COVID. Dear, dear friends. And yet, we were in this kind of idyllic landscape. So it wasn’t until afterwards, really, that we felt as though we’d had this amazing summer. I feel gratitude to have had that in my life."
