Actor Pierce Brosnan is devastated after his daughter Charlotte died, aged just 42. The mother-of-two died after a three year battle with ovarian cancer – the same disease which killed her mother Cassandra 22 years ago – at her London home on Friday.
Pierce, who has been filming a spy thriller, November Man, in Eastern Europe, last night said: ‘On June 28 my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer. She was surrounded by her husband Alex, children Isabella and Lucas and brothers Christopher and Sean. ‘Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl. ‘We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon. We thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences.’
Charlotte, who was adopted by the Irish actor in 1986 when her biological father Dermot Harris died, leaves behind her husband, artist Alex Smith and children Isabella, 15, and Lucas, eight. She is survived by her brothers Christopher, Sean, Dylan and Paris.
License To Kill actor Robert Davi said: ‘Been informed my friend Pierce Brosnan lost his daughter to an illness – my prayers go out to him and his family.’
Her brother Sean’s agent Miles Anthony said: ‘My thoughts and prayers are with my client and friend Sean Brosnan who lost his beautiful sister Charlotte over the weekend. Love you buddy.’
Charlotte was nine years old when her mother Cassandra married Pierce at Chelsea Registry Office in 1980.
Charlotte and her brother Christopher, from Cassandra’s previous marriage to Dermot, were joined by a half-sibling Sean in 1983.However, Cassandra became ill four years later while filming in India and after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, fought a four year battle with the disease. She was just 43 when she died in Los Angeles in December 1991. In an interview with Mail On Sunday in March, Pierce spoke about his drawing on his own experiences to play a widower who falls in love with a cancer sufferer in his latest film Love Is All You Need. Pierce and Cassandra’s youngest son Sean was only eight years old when she died. He told the MoS: ‘‘I went through it all, very publicly. Such things draw a mark across your heart and it’s always a part of your life. To watch someone you love have their life eaten away – bit by bit, by this insidious and horrid disease – becomes an indelible part of your psyche.
‘It certainly did for me and, of course, when I received this script, the challenge of playing this part was not lost on me.’
Three years following Cassandra’s death, Pierce met journalist Keely Shaye Smith, who he went on to marry in 2001.
Charlotte battled drug dependency and depression in her early thirties and volunteered for treatment at the Priory Clinic in 2003. It was her third stay at the £4,000-a-week rehab centre in Richmond, London, after she developed depression following a temporary split from her long-term partner Alex.
She had previously been treated there for cocaine addiction, and her brother Christopher had received similar therapy for drink and drug addictions.
