The drive home from work was a little more exciting than usual for commuters around the country in late May, after a mystery Aussie caller, going by the name Claire, wildly claimed live on air that she’d had a fling with 007 star Pierce Brosnan.
Claire had phoned in during a segment on Nova FM’s Late Drive with Ben, Liam & Belle show. She was responding to their call-out for Aussies who’d been lucky enough to have a brush with a James Bond star.
“I’ve actually done more than touch a Bond,” a cheeky Claire revealed over the phone. “I’ve actually slept with a Bond!”
After host Belle Jackson described her as a real-life Bond girl, Claire went on to allege she’d met the Bond actor in question while the pair were working on the same film 30 years ago.
While Claire was cagey on the details, she claimed the fling “was for the duration of the film”. She alleged, “It was kind of a little bit controversial, because I think he might have been seeing his current wife at the beginning”.
When Belle asked Claire to “cough once if it was Pierce Brosnan”, the caller let off a quick, but very clear cough over the phone.
“We have lift off …what a call!” fellow host Ben Harvey exclaimed.
Indeed, Pierce first met his wife Keely Shaye Smith in Mexico in 1994. She was 30 at the time and working as a journalist. Keely, now 61, has previously revealed she found Pierce, 72, “captivating”. The pair went on to enjoy their first date just a few days later. Eventually, they married in 2001 in Pierce’s native Ireland and welcomed two sons, Dylan, 28, and Paris, 24.
So what does Keely make of the wild affair claims?
“She’s worried, naturally – anyone would be,” a source tells New Idea exclusively.
“But Pierce has shown her the timeline just doesn’t add up, and thankfully, he’s been able to put Keely’s mind at ease,” the insider adds. They explain that Keely was actually with Pierce during his visit to Oz to promote the GoldenEye film in 1995, the year Claire claimed to have had the fling.
“But it doesn’t make it any more fun. Pierce is fuming – he’s always been so protective of Keely.
“It’s not the first time someone’s used Pierce’s name for attention,” the source says. “But when it involves Keely, it cuts deep. He worships Keely. She’s his rock, and he is sometimes a little too ready to take his gloves off when it comes to protecting her.”
In 2022, when a viral Facebook post cruelly targeted Keely’s figure, Pierce fired back, writing: “I strongly love every curve of her body. She is the most beautiful woman in my eyes. I always seek to be worthy of her love.”
And it’s not the first time the actor, who has weathered his fair share of heartbreak, has been vocal in crediting Keely with grounding him through fame’s highs and lows.
Keely rescued Pierce, who stars in the recently released Paramount+ TV series MobLand, from what was an incredibly dark time, after he lost his first wife, Aussie Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer in 1991. Pierce was left to raise their three children alone.
Then, in 2013, it was Keely who was once again Pierce’s guiding light when he lost Charlotte, Cassandra’s daughter, whom he adopted as his own, to the same disease that had taken her mother’s life. She was just 41 years old.
While Pierce has been undeniably rocked by these latest claims of infidelity, our insider says Keely, measured as always, is content to ignore them and move on.
“They have so much to look forward to, and any tired old claims of his activities when they barely knew each other have no impact on who they are now,” our source explains.
“As far as Keely is concerned, this won’t shake them – their love remains the Hollywood gold standard.”
