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ON screen, he’s romanced some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Halle Berry, Meryl Streep, Salma Hayek and Rosamund Pike are just a few of the glamorous A-listers to have starred opposite Pierce Brosnan.

But the former James Bond star only has eyes for wife Keely.

He says: “She is the most beautiful woman and someone who has been my north star for many a day and a year now. We just celebrated 19 years of life together.”

Brosnan says Keely is not fazed by his on-screen liaisons. “She calls it legal cheating,” he adds.

“My wife is very cool. She has a great sense of humour about it, a great sense of who she is as a woman and security and faith within me.”

The pair met in 1994 when the former journalist interviewed Brosnan. They tied the knot in Ireland seven years later.

A grief-stricken Brosnan had sworn never to marry again after losing first wife Cassandra to ovarian cancer three years earlier in 1991, when she was just 43.

It was she who pushed him to go to Hollywood. That move landed him the starring role in the detective series Remington Steele from 1982 and ultimately led to him playing 007 in four Bond films.

The memories of this heartbreaking period in his life, when he was left to bring up their eight-year-old son Sean, came flooding back while making his latest movie, Danish romantic comedy Love Is All You Need.

Brosnan gives an acclaimed performance as heartbroken widower and father-of-one Philip, whose life changes after he meets cancer survivor Ida.

Brosnan says: “As a man who has gone through the rigours of loss and dealing with family, I guess there was something there I could draw on.

“I know what it is like to be a widower and what it is like to find love again.

“So I know there’s hope and that you have to learn to get on with it. Ups and downs are what life is all about.

“But the memory of Cassie and her fight against cancer is never forgotten. You cannot escape your own life and the experiences, good and bad, when you play certain characters.”

Just as his character’s life changes in the film, Brosnan found meaning again with Keely.

He says: “We met when I was like Philip, adrift. I’d been a widower for three years. Keely is the backbone of our family, of my life, and I tell her that I love her every day.

“I tell her that she’s beautiful and I couldn’t have done it without her.”

He’s speaking from the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where the Irish-born star lives with American Keely and their sons Dylan, 16, and Paris, 12. He’s just taken eight months out of the film business to relax with his family here.

The couple rarely venture on to red carpets and have little to do with other Hollywood A-listers.

And while he can be mistaken for a good 15 years younger than a man who will turn 60 next month, recent pictures of Brosnan on the beach were less than flattering.

Pictured shirtless, it wasn’t the muscular physique of current Bond hunk Daniel Craig which came to mind, but the ageing figure of moobed TV mogul Simon Cowell.

“I’ve been living the life of Riley for the last eight months,” Brosnan admits.

“I finished three movies back-to-back last year, so I’ve been at home with the family since October. It’s one of those lovely luxuries that come with hard work. We always wanted to get away so we found this place. It’s a small three-bedroom cottage that sits right on the water’s edge.

“This is the most magical place. We have a beautiful Garden of Eden and the sea is at my feet. Keely is a gardener and I do my painting in my little grass hut on the beach – and look like Simon Cowell!”

Whatever acting plaudits he gains, Brosnan’s seven-year stint as Bond remains the one that people remember him for.

“That was, without a question, one of the most rewarding roles,” he admits.

“That character and the opportunities it gave one is the gift that keeps giving because once you’re a Bond, you’re a Bond for life.”

He says of current Bond Daniel Craig: “He is doing superbly well – a Bond for the day and the season.”

Brosnan has carved out a career for himself beyond Bond, having appeared in Dante’s Peak, Mamma Mia! and The Ghost Writer. He has also produced movies including The Thomas Crown Affair and The Matador.

His son Sean, 29, has followed his dad into acting and Brosnan believes his two younger sons will probably do the same.

He says: “The 12-year-old makes movies online and he’s about to start filming an adaptation with his brother.”

Their privileged upbringing is a world away from Brosnan’s childhood.

Aged two, he was abandoned by his father and left with his grandparents while his mother worked in London as a nurse.

After several years in a lodging house in Ireland, he finally joined his mum in London when he was 10.

It was then that he saw his first Bond movie, Goldfinger, which inspired him to get into acting.

Brosnan will next star in Love Punch with Emma Thompson and the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel A Long Way Down.

Love Is All You Need opens in cinemas on Friday.

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