Pierce Brosnan opens up about devastating losses of his first wife and daughter: 'I don't look at the cup as half full'

Pierce Brosnan recently opened up to Esquire about growing up without a father, as well as the heartbreaking losses of his first wife and only daughter to ovarian cancer over 20 years apart.

The former James Bond actor revealed to the magazine that he taught himself to be a father, as he didn't have anyone in his life growing up to show him what a dad should do.

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"I know what it's like to bring up sons, and it can be a very arduous road," he said. "My fatherly instincts are purely my own. They relate back to no one, because there was no one."

Brosnan, who has four sons, was abandoned by his father when he was an infant, and his mother later left their Irish village to find work in London. As a result, he lived with various relatives, as well as in a boardinghouse, growing up.

See photos of Pierce Brosnan and his first wife, Cassandra Harris:

Despite his father, Thomas Brosnan, being absent from his life, the star of AMC's "The Son" has met him once as an adult when he was filming "Remington Steele" in 1984.

"I only met Tom the once," he recalled. "I had a Sunday afternoon with him. A story about this and that, has a few pints of Guinness, and we said goodbye. I would have loved to have known him. He was a good whistler and he has a good walk ... that's as much as I know about him."

Less than a decade later in 1991, Brosnan lost his first wife, Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer, the same disease that took the life of their daughter, Charlotte, in 2013.

"I don't look at the cup as half full, believe me," he said of the heartbreak he's experienced. "The dark, melancholy Irish black dog sits beside me from time to time."

Despite those devastating losses and the difficult start he had in life, Brosnan has more than persevered. He married his second wife, Keely Shaye Smith, in 2001 and they've since welcomed two sons, Dylan, 20, and Paris, 16. He is also father to Sean, 33, and Christopher, 44, who he adopted when he married Cassandra.

Earlier this week, Brosnan and his wife were all smiles at the premiere of his new AMC show, "The Son," and weren't afraid of showing affection for the cameras.

See photos from their appearance below:

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