Almost two decades after his father spoke publicly about cutting him off, Christopher Brosnan is once again in the spotlight after being photographed in London in June 2024.
The son of movie star Pierce Brosnan, Christopher has struggled with drug addiction, which resulted in his relationship with his father becoming strained and then non-existent as the former James Bond made the difficult decision to sever ties with him.
The estrangement between father and son came following years of problematic behaviour by Christopher, now 51. In 1997, the then-aspiring director served three months in jail for drink driving, after being fined for the same offence the year before.
He was later linked to two incidents at London nightclubs, being arrested for theft at Chinawhite (although charges were later dropped) and banned from Browns due to his involvement in a brawl at the venue.
But it was Christopher’s continued drug problem, which was so serious that it led to him overdosing and falling into a coma at one point, that prompted Pierce, 71, to take drastic action.
“Christopher is still very lost. Shockingly so. I know where he is, but he’s having a hard life,” Pierce told Playboy magazine in 2005. “I can only have strong faith and believe he will recover. He has tested everybody in this family but none more so than himself. He knows how to get out. He doesn’t want to.”
Pierce described his decision as “painful” and added, “You never completely cut them off, but I have cut Christopher off. I had to say, ‘Go. Get busy living, or get busy dying.’ He has my prayers.”
In a separate interview with The Mirror, Pierce said, “You can only take the horse to the water, you can’t make it drink. I have reached out to him, and I’ve done my best. But it’s down to him, and I hope he can make it through.”
Pierce initially became step-father to Christopher and his late older sister, Charlotte, when he married their mother, Cassandra Harris, in 1979. After the children’s biological father, Dermot Harris, died in 1986, Pierce adopted them.
Tragically, following a four-year battle with ovarian cancer, Cassandra passed away in 1991, leaving Pierce as a single father to Christopher, Charlotte and Sean, who he and Cassandra had welcomed in 1983.
“I can see the pain in Christopher’s eyes, the absence in his heart for his mother,” Pierce told People about his son, who was 19 when Cassandra died.
Although Christopher threw himself into film studies at UCLA and the New York Film Academy, and worked alongside his father as part of the production crew on movies like Tomorrow Never Dies and The Thomas Crown Affair, his substance abuse issues became progressively worse. Despite interventions and stints in rehab, Christopher was unable to stay clean.
Even though Pierce made the tough decision to cut Christopher out of his life in 2005, he included his eldest son in a Father’s Day post in 2022 alongside a picture of himself with Sean, 40, as well as Dylan, 27, and Paris, 23, his two sons with second wife Keely.
“My love forever to you dear sons, Paris, Dylan, Sean and Christopher, thank you deeply for your love on this Father’s Day,” Pierce posted, suggesting he hasn’t given up on a full reconciliation or Christopher making a complete recovery.