It all started with a tweet, as is often the case these days. A Jackie Chan fan account shared a touching video of Chan and his daughter watching some of his old stunts on screen… As they watched, the father and daughter were moved. The fan called the footage “the most wholesome thing ever.”
His daughter asks him, “Dad, were you in pain?” to which Chan replies, “A lot.” His daughter then tells him she loves him. The emotion is palpable.
Of course, the Internet went wild, as it often does in such cases… Who doesn’t love a touching story of a father and daughter? Especially since it’s likely to go viral when the father is one of the most beloved and famous martial arts stars in the world.
Then another Twitter user chimes in and… the whole story falls apart. Because that’s just it: a story. A fairy tale. But not reality, unfortunately.
– According to this tweet, Jackie Chan disinherited his daughter because she is a lesbian. The latter and his wife are homeless, while her father has a fortune of 400 million dollars.
Jackie Chan does have a daughter, but the girl in the shared video is not her – she is simply an actress, playing Chan’s daughter in a recent film. The real daughter was born in 1999, the result of an affair Chan had with a beauty pageant winner. He never acknowledged her as his own, and when he finally acknowledged paternity under duress of a DNA test, he refused to pay child support…
Suddenly, the “beautiful story” seemed incredibly cynical. Fans, celebrating Jackie Chan’s supposed “sincerity” in his relationship with his daughter, when in reality, he rejected his only daughter. It’s no surprise that since this was revealed, the tweet has gone viral and Jackie Chan’s reputation has plummeted.