In 1971, Michael Caine—already a major movie star after Alfie, The Italian Job, and Get Carter—was lounging at home watching television when a Maxwell House coffee commercial came on.
In the background was a woman who stopped him cold.
“I saw this lady on the television in a commercial and fell in love instantly,” he later recalled. “I just watched her and I thought, ‘That’s the woman for me.'”
Convinced she lived in Brazil (it was a Brazilian coffee ad), Caine was ready to book a flight and search the entire country. But fate intervened—a friend in the advertising business told him the enchanting model actually lived in London, just a few miles away.
Her name was Shakira Baksh. She was a former Miss Guyana, born to a Muslim family of Indian heritage in British Guiana. She had placed third in Miss World 1967 and was building a career as a model and actress.
Caine got her number and called. She said no.
He called again. She said no again.
He called eleven times. On the eleventh call, she finally agreed to meet him.
“I fell in love with her in about eight minutes,” Caine said. “It took her two hours to fall in love with me.”
They married in 1973 in Las Vegas and have been together ever since—raising a daughter named Natasha, navigating fame, and building one of Hollywood’s most enduring marriages.
Caine has said his wife saved his life by helping him give up drinking and focus on his health. “Without her,” he once admitted, “I would have been dead long ago.”
Today, after more than 50 years together, their love story remains proof that sometimes the best things in life appear when you least expect them—even in a coffee commercial.
