“I Had No Money”, Michael Caine Recalls His Poor Childhood and the Life-Changing Meeting With His Wife Shakira

Michael Caine is an acclaimed English actor with a career spanning over 60 years. His captivating demeanor, combined with his British charm in movies like Interstellar, made him the great performer he is today. The actor has recently celebrated his 90th birthday, and as the years go by, he takes stock of what he has gone through, from humble beginnings to becoming a real cultural icon and acting legend.

Michael hails from a very humble background.

Poverty and hardship marked Caine’s childhood. His family lived in a small apartment with no indoor toilet, and his parents struggled to make ends meet. Michael attended Wilson’s Grammar School in Camberwell but had to leave at the age of 16 to work and help support his family.

He grew up in severe poverty, which has influenced his entire life. Reminiscing about that time, Michael said, “Money was the only thing my young life lacked. I never had any money until I was 29, so I was very much a formed character before the money could spoil me. Everyone’s poor in my family, so I’ve always controlled everything.”

Michael takes us back to those humble times of his upbringing, saying, “In order to keep me with her, my mother took a job as a cook in a rich man’s country house, and that’s undoubtedly why I am a very good cook today. My mother cooked for the family. I would wait in the kitchen to eat the leftover pheasant and grouse. The way I live today is recreating that idyllic country house of my childhood.”

Yet, despite the fact that it was challenging, Caine has often credited his childhood for giving him the drive and determination to succeed in his career. He has stated that his experiences growing up in poverty helped him to connect with the working-class characters he has played throughout his acting career.

Caine has been married to his second wife, Shakira Baksh, since 1973. Baksh is a former model and beauty queen from Guyana, and the couple met in the early 1970s at a party. They have been together for over 40 years and have been seen as one of the most enduring marriages in Hollywood. “I fell in love with her in about eight minutes,” Michael said. “It took her two hours to fall in love with me.”

Their love life blossomed, and even though the actor had reached great success, and met many charming women, Shakira always remained the one. “That could be a great temptation, so I decided that I would never marry a woman who wasn’t as beautiful as the women I was working with. And I married a woman who, in actual fact, is more beautiful than most women I have worked with, so all the temptation was at home, not at work.”

Despite being together for so long, the couple has remained relatively private about their personal life, but the actor has shared a tip to make his marriage endure for so long. “The secret is separate bathrooms. Never share a bathroom with a woman.”

The first gigs to gather a bit of money.

When he first approached a career in acting, Michael wasn’t too fussy about the parts he took because his major goal was to make a lot of money. In fact, since the beginning of his performing debut, the actor has widely discussed his financial needs. He’s also mentioned the failure of several of his roles. “I made a load of hilariously bad flops,” Michael claimed.

Reminiscing about his first gigs, he said, “I became an actor knowing that I would never be a star. I would never be rich, and I would never be famous. All I tried to do was to become the best actor I could become. I became an actor, but my father wanted me to work in the fish market where he worked.”

Michael struggled to break into the acting industry, and despite his efforts, he had little success at first. As Caine remembers, this condition made most of his friends abandon him.

“When I was a young actor, I was very poor. I couldn’t buy a round in the pub, and they stopped talking to me. So all my friends were rich people I met later, fortunately. Roger Moore and Sean ­Connery are the 2 actors that I’m closest to.”

He is now one of Hollywood’s most recognized actors.

But sooner or later, his talent surfaced, and he did get his first leading role in Zulu. Yet, it wasn’t until the mid-1960s when he starred in films like Alfie and The Ipcress File, that Caine’s career really took off. Ever since then, he has become one of the most successful and well-respected actors of his generation.

He claims, “The day I became Michael Caine, that was it — I was Michael Caine. I wasn’t Maurice anymore. I was a completely different person. And it was amazing. It was fabulous. He was broke. He was out of work. And the moment I became Michael Caine, I got a job and was on my way.”

Michael celebrated his 90th birthday alongside longtime friends.

Michael has reached the age of 90, and he now reflects on his life and career saying, “I’ve done 150 movies. I think I’ve done enough.” Considering Caine’s stunning presence in cinema for such a long time, it is unsettling to consider the scene without him.

With a career spanning over 6 decades, Michael is now prioritizing his family and his nearly 50-year marriage to his wife, Shakira Caine, with whom he’s madly in love. “My family and extended family and the way we live are the most important things to me in this life. My wife, Shakira, and I are equal partners.”

Apart from his family, Caine celebrated his birthday with the people he loves the most, and the actor treasured that special occasion with his longtime buddy Tom Cruise. The 90th birthday celebration for Michael Caine in London was a special event, and Tom didn’t want to miss it, to the point that he also skipped the Oscars this year.

The 2 have been friends for a long time after working together on the film Austin Powers in Goldmember. However, other celebs also joined them, including David Walliams, who posted images and videos from the event on social media.

After such an accomplished life, there would be no better way to celebrate this achievement other than surrounded by his loved ones. Having temporarily distanced himself from the world of Hollywood, Caine says, “My life is not acting or Hollywood. My family is my life. Relationships and friends, that’s all I need. Whether I’m working or not, at half past 5, I take off my shoes and have a cup of tea. I don’t let this business rule me.”