Action legend Jackie Chan is famous all over the world because of his contribution to the genre. Not only Hollywood, but his movies shed a lot of light even on Asian movies, especially because of his unique style. Surprisingly, though, while he was a master in blending genres like comedy and action in his movies, his personal life lacked humor, just as much.
And admittedly, it was due to his own fault, as Jackie Chan claimed in his memoir Never Grow Up. However, the excerpts obtained by media outlets point to Chan terribly regretting the behavior of his earlier days. Especially that to his wife and son, to whom he had been particularly unfair.
Jackie Chan had the rock-solid support of his family for his Hollywood dream
After tasting success in the ’70s in Hong Kong cinema, Jackie Chan tried testing the international market first in the mid-80s. However, he could not achieve much in Hollywood at that time because of how wildly different the stereotypical action genre in Hollywood and his own light-hearted take on the same was. And trying to blend these two did not result in any good outcome.
Although he kept making blockbuster hits in Hong Kong after that with movies like Police Story, his Hollywood success did not come until years later. Inevitably, this was a hard time in his life. However, he had the rock-solid support of his wife at the time.
Not only that but when he did begin his journey in Hollywood and took the world by storm, his wife Joan Lin Feng-Jia gave up her own acting career to move overseas with her husband to take care of things. His own behavior towards her, however, was pretty despicable at the time as he himself claimed later in his tell-all memoir Never Grow Up.
Jackie Chan regretted treating his wife badly
Although Jackie Chan remains one of the most beloved action stars of all time, his life has not been free of scandals. Even though a lot of details were revealed later, as the action star kept his family life private, there were enough public scandals to make up for that.
From cheating to that affair resulting in a child, there have been a lot of scandals over the years. The most shocking though, came from his own memoir, where he claimed that being influenced by people around him, especially his friends, his behavior towards his wife turned bitter. He noted,
“As happy as I was that Joan and Jaycee were both fine and that I was a father, I have to admit that some doubts popped into my head.”
What happened is once a martial artist friend of his after returning from a film shoot realized that his then-girlfriend had completely cleaned house. From money, savings, and even furniture, all was gone. And seeing that affected Chan quite negatively.
In fact, he was so far gone in his beliefs, that he ended up restricting his Joan Lin from accessing his finances at all even after earning millions. He also made sure that in the event they ever get divorced, Lin would not be able to claim any of his money or properties.
This is something he especially came to regret in his later years as he called himself a *real b**tard* in his memoir.
Source: Variety
