Hello Magazine
December 2, 1995
Cassandra the late wife of Pierce Brosnan
In her own words and for the first time: The story she held back for fear it might damage her husband’s future career
Heart-throb actor Pierce Brosnan owes his stardom and his biggest role to date, as 007 James Bond, to just one woman — his late wife Cassandra.
It was Cassie, a former Bond girl herself, who was the driving force behind Brosnan, a relatively unknown Irish actor, when he became first her new love, then her husband, back in the early Eighties. It was her determination, encouragement, and self-sacrifice, which led to the couple deciding to “go for broke” in America. They weighed up the odds, which were less than favorable. Stardom or bust. That was the gamble.
But the first big problem was finding the cash to pay the fares of Pierce, Cassie, and the two young children that she’d had with Dermot Harris (brother of Richard), as well as living expenses.
They scraped some cash together, including savings put by to install central heating in their Wimbledon home, but knew they were going to need more.
They were a blissfully happy couple, full of hope for what Cassie knew instinctively was Pierce’s bright future. And they were very much in love.
Australian-born Cassie poured out her story to me at the time over a number of one-on-one meetings. She wondered if she could raise more money by selling her traumatic life story to a newspaper. Cassie decided to “tell all” about her stormy relationship with well-known hell-raiser Dermot Harris. She was prepared to do almost anything to help to give Pierce the chance for his big break in Hollywood.
Her extraordinary story. which can only now be told, was the stuff of nightmares. There were moments of joy, but more often long spells of despair. At one point, while she was with Dermot Harris, she thought of killing herself but was saved by the kindness of Elizabeth, Richard Harris’ first wife.
“I had to pay back £1,500 to my bank and in my heart of hearts I couldn’t even begin to think how I’d pay back so much,” explained Cassie. “I lapsed into a deep depression.” There seemed to be only one way out. As she sat alone in her kitchen, contemplating suicide, the phone rang — it was Elizabeth.
“When Elizabeth came round I told her I was going to kill myself. It was a last cry for help. She was marvellous. She listened for hours, then she wrote out a cheque to clear my bank debt.” Relative peace of mind returned. Her relationship with Dermot continued to blow hot and cold. Then suddenly it was all over. They split.
Meeting Pierce was the turning point to new happiness.
Living in a flat in Fulham, Cassie decided it was time to have a party. She told me: “Life was beginning to get much better for me because I was being recognised as a top model. David Bailey chose me to be Omar Sharif’s girlfriend in a number of cigarette ads he was commissioned to shoot. A party seemed like a good idea, except that half my friends didn’t turn up because it was a Cup Final night. However, an actor friend of a friend, named Pierce Brosnan was there.
“Money was still a little tight so the food for my party was a bit scarce. During the evening I happened to walk into the kitchen and I saw this man eating chicken he’d taken from my fridge. ‘My God, that’s my chicken,’ I screamed at him. ‘That’s the chicken for my children’s sandwiches they have to take to school.’
“As cool as you like, he said: ‘What do you want me to do — put it back?’ Which he did… ugh! That man, Pierce Brosnan, was to become my husband.”
Shaken (but not stirred), Cassandra was to meet cucumber-cool Brosnan again at another party. “The chicken incident had left me feeling pretty cool, and I can’t say I fell for him then, but within two weeks and a number of dates I was madly in love with Pierce,” admitted Cassie. “We soon realised we wanted to be together all the time.”
Eventually Pierce, Cassie, and her children moved, first to a rented house in south London and later to one they bought in Wimbledon. “Pierce has been absolutely amazing, so gentle, so calm, so wise, and so loving. We all had a lovely time together,” Cassie confided to me at this time of her greatest contentment.
It was a blissful relationship right from the start. They’d walk together holding hands, he’d gently touch her arm, catch her eye across a crowded room. At the same time they were clearly passionately in love as well as best friends.
It was his gentleness and caring that Cassie probably loved most about Pierce. “Pierce told me I had to cut out modelling and be an actress again because I couldn’t do both. Pierce changed me, making me happier than I’d ever been.”
But even then, blue-eyed blonde Cassandra had her own secret wishes for her husband, and one of the most precious to her was to see him star as James Bond. “He has a warm, gentle sexiness about him. His eyes just melt women! Maybe a bit like those of a naughty boy. Yet he is inwardly so strong,” said Cassie.
Perhaps for these reasons, Brosnan’s appearance on the Hollywood scene was an instant success. Snapped up to star in the television series The Mannions, in which he made his mark, he went on to star in another long-running TV series, Remington Steele. And they had their own son, Sean, now 12.
Suddenly Cassandra feared that publication of her own story would not be good for the stardom coming Pierce’s way. So she asked for it to be held back, which is why Cassie’s own story has remained untold until now…
Cassie was proud of her own appearance in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only despite what she recalled was a “nerve-wracking” love scene with Roger Moore.
“No self-respecting woman wants to disappoint Roger Moore,” said Cassie, “so I thought it best to ask him before rehearsals began if I should put everything into our kissing scenes. He told me, ‘Well, not during rehearsals.’
“I thanked God I’d asked because I would have put everything I’d got into it during the rehearsals, too!”
Then during the kissing scenes when their lips came together passionately the director shouted “cut”. He asked Cassie to remove her knickers because the camera was picking up her knicker line!
“I gasped,” said Cassie. “I wondered how I was going to take my knickers off on set without everyone gawping. But I managed, probably because the champagne we were drinking was real!
“Kissing Roger Moore was hot stuff, just as you’d expect kissing James Bond to be,” she revealed. “But it still wasn’t a patch on kissing Pierce.” If only Pierce could become James Bond. Cassie knew it was a role tailor-made for him. It would have happened at the time he was starring in Remington Steele but, to Cassie’s great disappointment, Pierce couldn’t be released from his television contract.
Then tragedy struck. Cassie developed ovarian cancer. After a long and very brave fight she died in Pierce’s arms in December 1991, aged only 39.
Now, nearly four years on, in Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan has finally made it as 007 — James Bond the Fifth. The one James Bond Cassandra would have had no qualms about kissing to bits, even at rehearsals!
It’s the big one for Pierce Brosnan, as it would have been the big one for Cassandra Brosnan if she’d been around to share her husband’s achievement.
As Pierce says, “This one is for Cassie. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for her.”
TEXT & B/W PHOTOS: DEREK SHUFF
