Jackie Chan's confessional memoir includes accounts of infidelity, reckless spending, child abuse

Jackie Chan’s memoir, Never Grow Up hit shelves on 4 December. The confessional account has the actor admit to many vices that most people of his stature perhaps would not. Variety chronicles a few such unabashed sections from the book. The Oscar winner said that during his initial days of being a 20-something uneducated bloke, he had no idea what to do with 10 million Hong Kong dollars that he had ‘suddenly’ amassed. Hence, the only thing he did was drink incessantly , total cars while rash driving and be in a ‘dizzied state’ everyday. [caption id=“attachment_5675361” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Jackie Chan ’s memoir Never Grow Up. Image from Facebook[/caption] The actor recounted an incident where he had entered a watch store with about 500,000 Hong Kong dollars in cash (which presently amounts to $64,000) and asked for the most expensive and bejeweled watch. He ordered for seven such pieces. He would roll his sleeves up to show-off a new watch everyday. Chan, in an almost self-analytical tone, acknowledged that such activities were a result of his insecurities and lack of confidence. The actor also admitted to making a ‘serious mistake’ by cheating on his wife Joan Lin with beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi Lei, the 1990 Miss Asia. Once the news of his infidelity which led to the birth of a child, broke on the news, Chan had wanted to call Lin up, but he did not know what to tell her. Jackie recounted an incident where he had been considerably violent while admonishing his son Jaycee, now 36. He said he had hit him once and was quite heavy-handed— “directly lifting him and throwing him onto the sofa”. “That time I really scared him and his mother to death, and I myself was very regretful.” Chan’s Chinese version of the memoir, which released in 2015, reportedly received positive reactions from readers who felt that the book was a true memoir and not a whitewashed version that most celebrities tend to lean towards.