Jackie Chan’s estranged daughter Etta Ng has opened up about her life in a rare interview, saying she has never met her famous dad, and doesn’t want anything from him.
In an exclusive interview with Apple Daily, the 19-year-old talked about coming out, her relationship with her mom, her marriage to her girlfriend Andi Autumn, and how she feels about her estranged movie-star father.
The interview follows Ng’s return to Hong Kong last month following The pair announced their recent marriage upon returning to the city.
The interview also comes after the newspaper reported this morning that the couple went to Ng’s mom’s home in Happy Valley after the pair were kicked out of a Mong Kok hostel they had been staying in since last month.
According to Apple Daily, the owners of the hostel called the police because the pair owed them HK$2,250 (US$288) for five nights’ stay. The owner, surnamed Lau, told reporters that she didn’t know who the couple were, only that they claimed they were models and that they wouldn’t come out of their room until about 4pm or 5pm each day to get food.
Lau told the newspaper that when she asked Ng to pay up, Ng handed over HK$20 (US$3) because that was all she had, and when she went to inspect the room, there were boxes of food and trash everywhere.
‘I don’t know him’
When asked about her relationship with Chan, Ng laughed.
“I’ve never met him in my life. If you asked me ‘have you ever met him?’ I’d ask you ‘have you ever met him?’ My level of familiarity with him is the same as yours,” she said.
She also added that she hasn’t met her half brother, actor and singer Jaycee Chan, and dismissed rumours that she received any help from him.
“I don’t think of [my dad] as a bad or a good person, because I really don’t know him, if I don’t really know someone, I can’t judge them. I know when I was young I would have said some impulsive things, but now I’m a bit more level-headed,” she added.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzL–Jto_94
Growing Pains
Ng went on to say that being the illegitimate daughter of the famous martial arts movie star made growing up difficult.
“It was really weird because when I was born, everyone knew who I was, I didn’t even know who I was, and everyone was following every move I made to see how I’d turn out, and I was like ‘what?’ Dude, if I was a normal person, no one would be watching me.”
Ng, who attended elementary school in Shanghai, said the difficulties extended to being bullied as a student by fellow pupils.
“People thought I had a relationship with my dad, so everyone kept saying ‘she’s a rich girl’. The teachers there were no use, there was one time I was on the floor being kicked, and the teachers would just yell ‘don’t do that’, then the other kids would step away and the teachers would just carry on doing what they were doing.”
Her comments come weeks after the publication of the movie star’s memoir Never Grow Up, which detailed Chan’s struggles with prostitutes, gambling, and drink driving, the SCMP reported.
While Chan acknowledged in the memoir that he cheated on his wife with former beauty queen and Ng’s mother Elaine Ng, critics have noted that Chan didn’t even publish their names.
The younger Ng told Apple Daily that she doesn’t expected to be included in Chan’s will, saying it was not her business.
“I don’t want anything from him, and I don’t mind, I’m not hurt,” she said.
When asked about their trip to Canada this year and why she wanted to find her dad, Ng replied that she was confused and wanted answers, adding that she didn’t want money from him.
“At that time, a lot of people saw the YouTube video and kept going ‘you want money, you want money.’ No. I was confused, I was scared, and I have mental health problems sometimes.”
When asked what would happen if she did meet Chan in person, she said: “I’d just be like ‘yo, what’s up dude? Um… that’s cool… um… can you give me some info? Like, what happened when I was young?'”
She told the newspaper that she wants to carve her own identity.
“My last name was never Chan.”
On Andi
“I never thought I’d meet someone who truly understands me,” was how Ng described her partner, whom she married in November.
She said many people wrongly assumed that Autumn was a bad influence and was only with her because of her dad and his money.
When asked about their future plans, the couple said they would be setting up a creative agency in Hong Kong, and that they also wanted to have children.
“We’re gonna adopt, do you know how many kids that are out there that need a family? That need love? We’re not gonna make more people, this world’s already overpopulated. We wanna take people in, because there are so many kids that actually need love and a home.”
On Her Mom
Ng’s relationship with her mother has been known to be fraught with tension. In 2015, the elder Ng was arrested and later released by police following allegations of child cruelty.
Ng started dating Autumn in 2017, and they moved in together shortly after Ng came out as lesbian.
In October 2017, the younger Ng dismissed allegations that she broke into her mother’s Happy Valley home after the elder Ng reported to the police that her house had been burgled and about HK$17,000 worth of goods had been taken.
Autumn also addressed negative comments that Ng’s mother made responding to their YouTube video plea for help, saying she was “hurt’ by the remarks but wanted to move forward and have a relationship with her now mother-in-law .
She said Ng’s mom was previously very accepting of her when she was friends with Ng, but that everything changed when they started dating.
The younger Ng said that she was keen to mend her relationship with her mom, but wouldn’t be moving back in with her as it wasn’t good for her mental health.
She also remarked that her mom is a very traditional person, saying that whenever her mom talks about Autumn, she refers to her as a “friend” instead of a “wife”, and that it would probably take time for her to accept their relationship.
