Jackie Chan confesses past sins, including prostitutes, in tell-all memoir

Jackie Chan

Prostitution, drinking, gambling, having an affair and even throwing his toddler son across the room in anger - these are the human failings that Jackie Chan has confessed to in his memoir “Never Grow Up”.

The Hong Kong martial artist and film star has been unexpectedly honest about his previous shortcomings, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Starting off as a juvenile stuntman, he confesses to prostitution and gambling, while also unveiling his subsequent parenting challenges and tacky "new-money star" behaviour when he first made a "big break" into stardom.

Below are five of Jackie Chan's most startling confessions.

Prostitution

As a youth, Chan explains that he spent all his wages on gambling, drinking and girls.

“The girl who served me [in the club] – I knew her as Number Nine – was beautiful, with a sweet personality," he says in his book.

“Every night, Number Nine and I would squeeze into her dingy little cubicle,

“There were times when I’d notice people trying to peep through the cracks in the door at us. Yet this little cubicle seemed like paradise to me.”

Overspending

Back when he was still a lowly martial artist, Jackie Chan admitted to always feeling inferior as he gazed into the window of the Peninsula Hotel.

“Like I didn’t deserve to set foot in there."

When adjusting to his fame, Jackie Chan underwent an impulsive overspending spree in Albert Yeung’s watch emporium, according to the SCMP overview of his memoirs.

“I strutted in and said, ‘Show me your top 10 watches. Are those the most expensive? With the most diamonds? Good, I’ll take seven of them.'

“Seven watches, one for every day of the week.”

Drinking

Because of his habit of heavy drinking every night he acknowledges that it inevitably started to erode his professionalism.

“I drove drunk all the time. In the morning I’d crash my Porsche, then in the evening I’d total a Mercedes-Benz. All day long, I went around in a haze,” he says in his memoir.

He also elaborates on his "one (drink) before lunch, one after lunch" phase.

“If I was called to the studio at seven in the morning, I’d arrive at noon in dark glasses, looking listless. 

"Why the dark glasses? To hide the fact that my face was puffy from a night of drinking,” according to the SCMP report.

Domestic violence

In the heat of an argument with his wife, Joan Lin, Jackie Chan stalked out and slammed the door.

“He, [producer Leonardo Ho], counselled me for a long time and finally said, ‘What are you doing? There’s no need for this. Just go back home, and you can both apologise’,” he recounts in his memoir.

When Chan returned home, his toddler son, Jaycee, ran to him, pointing his tiny hands like guns, shouting ‘Bang! Bang!’ as if he was avenging his mother.

“Then he snatched the keys out my hand and threw them on the floor. When I bent down to pick them up, he kicked my hand away! I was furious.

“I picked him up with one hand and flung him across the room, and he crashed into the sofa.”

Affair

Lastly, Jackie Chan acknowledges one of his "biggest mistakes" in 1999

“When the news broke about an affair I’d had that resulted in a child, the media frenzy was like a bomb going off.

“I wanted to phone Joan but I didn’t know what to say,” he recounts in his memoir.

“It wasn’t a mistake I could fix by saying, ‘I’m sorry.'”

Nevertheless, Joan Lin reacted calmly, saying “I know you must be feeling awful now. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. You go deal with this.”

She and Jackie Chan are still married to this day.