The internet has a long and deeply unimpressive history of having opinions about women's bodies that absolutely nobody asked for. Celebrities, in particular, are apparently fair game. Their weight, their curves, their before and after photos dissected by strangers who have never once been asked to weigh in and do so anyway.
It is exhausting, it is cruel, and it is incredibly boring. So when a pack of trolls decided to come for Keely Shaye Brosnan, wife of Pierce Brosnan, mother of his children, and a woman who did not ask for any of this, they got a response. And it came from James Bond himself.
Fat shaming is nothing new, but it remains refreshing when someone doesn't take it lying down
Image credits: Access Hollywood / Youtube
Pierce Brosnan's wife of 23 years was relentlessly shamed for her weight after her husband shared an anniversary photo of them
Pierce Brosnan, aka James Bond, Irish heartthrob, owner of one of the most recognisable jawlines in cinema history, has been married to Keely Shaye Brosnan for 23 years. The couple, who have five children between them, have become something of a gold standard for what a long-term Hollywood marriage can actually look like when both people are genuinely in it.
Pierce, now 71, has never been shy about how he feels about his wife. Keely, 61, is a former model turned philanthropist and TV correspondent who has spent the better part of three decades largely out of the spotlight, which makes the times she is dragged into it, usually by people with nothing better to do, all the more frustrating.
Image credits: GQ / Youtube
Haters were quick to point out how her body has changed, failing to see the intention of love behind the photos that he shared
In 2022, Pierce shared a holiday photo of the two of them online. It was then placed alongside a throwback image from the nineties, and the comparison went viral for all the wrong reasons. The comments were cruel, targeted and completely unprompted from strangers on the internet who lined up to fat-shame Keely, armed with the anonymity of a keyboard.
A friend apparently even offered to pay for surgery to help Keely lose weight. Pierce's response was swift, unambiguous, and has since been shared millions of times. He reportedly said, "Friends offered her surgery to reduce her weight. But I strongly love every curve of her body. She is the most beautiful woman in my eyes.”
“And also because she had our five children. In the past, I truly loved her for her person, not only for her beauty, and now I'm loving her even more that she is my children's mother. And I am very proud of her, and I always seek to be worthy of her love." The internet, understandably, lost its mind, unable to contain the waterfall of emotions that this kind of love drums up.
Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / Youtube
But Brosnan came to his wife's defence, saying she remains the most beautiful woman in the world to him, regardless of what other people see or think
The photos were originally shared to celebrate the couple's enduring love, but Jenelle Evans, known for her appearance on MTV's Teen Mom, reposted them on Facebook with a caption comparing the images to herself and her husband, David Eason. David commented, "We do not look that fat," to which Jenelle replied, "Close to it."
The backlash was immediate. Followers reported the comments to Facebook, and David was subsequently blocked from the platform for seven days for using the word "fat." The irony? Just days before the incident, Jenelle had posted a video championing body positivity and encouraging women to embrace their bodies after having children. "Always love yourself," she had said. "FUPA for life." Apparently, that advice is selective.
Image credits: The Kelly Clarkson Show / youtube
Teen Mom couple Davis and Jenelle also came under fire for their cruel comments, even getting banned from Facebook for what they said
Image credits: piercebrosnanofficial / Instagram
Their origin story is almost absurdly romantic. The two first met at a party in Mexico in the mid-nineties. Keely had been sent to interview Cheers actor Ted Danson, but found herself talking to Pierce instead. "He was captivating," she told People in 2001. "Tall, dark and handsome, everything that everybody would immediately be attracted to. He had this mischievous sparkle in his eyes. I thought, 'Wow! Wow!'"
A few days later they had their first date, which ended at three in the morning under the stars with Kenny Loggins playing in the background and fireworks going off overhead. Pierce has since said that meeting Keely "saved" him, as he had been struggling with depression following the loss of his first wife, Cassandra, who lost her life to ovarian cancer in 1991 at the age of 43.
"Wherever I went in the world, I missed her," he said of Keely. "We just seemed to fit." Tragically, the grief did not end there; his daughter Charlotte also had ovarian cancer in 2013, and lost her battle at 41, just weeks after Pierce had walked her down the aisle in a secret wedding.
It is a life that has known profound loss. Which perhaps explains why, when Pierce talks about Keely, he does so like a man who knows exactly how lucky he is. "Not if I searched a million times over would I find one as good," he has said. Twenty-three years later, he is still saying it.
What would you say to trolls if your partner got trolled like this? Share your clap-backs in the comments!
Luckily, there was still an overwhelming amount of people in the comments who could see this is what true love looked like, at all sizes
