Pierce Brosnan is reliving a truly agonizing memory. Over two decades after the 1991 death of his first wife, actress Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer, the Irish actor is now mourning 41-year-old daughter Charlotte, who succumbed to the same disease as her mother June 28. "Pierce is beside himself, having to deal with this kind of loss again," a source close to the Thomas Crown Affair star, 66, tells Us Weekly.
Charlotte (Cassandra's daughter from a previous marriage, whom Brosnan adopted in the mid-80s) leaves behind husband Alex Smith plus daughter Isabella, 14, and son Lucas, 8. For Brosnan, the grief "doesn't get easier. Especially with her kids in the situation," the source observes.
"He's trying to be what comfort he can to her family, having been through it before himself. He will certainly push forward and pray that this brings more awareness to the tragedy cancer is," the source says.
Understandably, the entire family is "devastated," the insider notes, adding that Charlotte's children "had so much hope" for a potential recovery. "There were moments of true hope where they thought [the cancer] had been beaten, that's what makes it so difficult."
Brosnan also adopted Charlotte's brother, Christopher, and he and Australian actress Harris had one biological son together, Sean.The former James Bond star and second wife Keely Shaye Smith share younger sons Dylan, 16, and Paris, 12.
In the wake of this latest tragedy, the insider says, "their family has come together."
