Jackie Chan’s 2 Children: All About Jaycee and Etta

Jackie Chan may be one of the most recognizable action stars in the world, but the father of two is notoriously private about his family life.

He and his wife, Joan Lin, have been married for over 40 years and have one child together, son Jaycee Chan. Jackie also has an estranged daughter, Etta Ng Chok Lam, whom he shares with former beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi-Lei.

Jackie and Joan got married in 1982 and welcomed their only child, son Jaycee, that same year. Seventeen years later, the legendary stuntman made headlines when reports of his affair with Elaine surfaced. The pageant winner gave birth to their daughter, Etta, in 1999.

The Karate Kid star has rarely spoken about the affair, although he admitted to a number of wrongdoings, including cheating on his wife, in his memoir Never Grow Up.

“I’ve said in interviews that I’ve done well by a lot of people, but not my own family,” he wrote. “That I haven’t been a good father or a good husband, but I did my duty to my son and his mother.”

Jackie went on to share that he spent a lot of time working when Jaycee was growing up. “I didn’t see much of my family at all. If you asked me now if I regret this, I’d say yes.”

Here’s everything to know about Jackie Chan’s children, Jaycee and Etta.

Jaycee Chan, 41

Jackie and his wife Joan welcomed their son, Jaycee, on Dec. 3, 1982. “I didn’t much care what he looked like. I wanted to make sure he was healthy,” he wrote in Never Grow Up.

The martial arts expert went on to say that he noticed similarities between himself and his son, even at a young age. “I took one look and saw that my son was double-boned, too, which pleased me to no end. Only then did it sink in that this baby was my child, and then nothing else mattered,” Jackie wrote.

Growing up, Jaycee spent most of his time with his mom due to Jackie’s busy work schedule. “When he was a kid, he could only see me around 2 a.m.,” the actor told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. After high school, Jaycee attended the College of William and Mary for two semesters before moving to Hong Kong to pursue his own career as a singer and actor.

In a 2009 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jaycee spoke about wanting to break out of his father’s shadow. “I’m lucky to have a dad who’s really famous, but (people) don’t really know me for who I am … they just know me as Jackie Chan’s son,” he said. “The hardest part for me is to let people know what I’m really capable of doing on my own.”

To distinguish himself, Jaycee told The New York Times that he avoided doing action movies, instead focusing on roles in smaller films and on his music career.

Jackie’s daughter, Etta, was born to Elaine on Nov. 19, 1999. Although he has remained quiet about his estranged daughter, Jackie acknowledged his affair in his memoir, calling it a “serious mistake.”

“When the news broke about an affair I’d had that resulted in a child, the media frenzy was like a bomb going off,” he wrote. “I wanted to phone Joan but I didn’t know what to say. I wouldn’t be able to explain this. It wasn’t a mistake I could fix just by saying ‘I’m sorry.’ ”

The actor detailed how his wife forgave him but made no other mention of Etta or Elaine. His daughter, for her part, has previously said that the two don’t have a relationship. “He is not my dad. I have no feelings for him. He is my biological father but he is not in my life,” she told Express in 2015.

Etta also made headlines in 2018 when she claimed that she and her partner, Andi Autumn, were homeless. In a since-deleted YouTube video, Etta said, “We’ve been homeless for a month due to homophobic parents. We pretty much slept under a bridge, and other things.”  

In November of 2018, Etta and Autumn got married. The couple announced the news in since-deleted Instagram posts. “A home is with the family that you can choose and with that we are never alone,” Etta wrote. “Love is undoutbly [sic] stronger than blood.”