Jackie Chan said his father, Charles, disclosed a secret past when Chan was in his forties: “My father was a spy.” Chan recalled being shocked and needing about five hours before he felt ready to hear the explanation. The account comes from a PEOPLE interview republished by Yahoo News Malaysia on May 30, 2025.
What did Jackie Chan’s father tell him?
In Chan’s recollection, the conversation began with his father saying, “Son, I’m old. I might sleep and never wake up.” Charles then told him, “I have a secret to tell you.” The secret, Chan said, was that his father had been a spy.
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Chan described himself as “very shocked.” He said he could not take in the explanation straight away, but about five hours later he was ready to listen. The disclosure took place when Chan was in his forties, according to the PEOPLE interview as reported by Yahoo News Malaysia.
What did the account say about Charles Chan’s past?
The report characterizes Charles’s alleged work as government spying during the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s. That historical description is presented in the interview article; it is not independently verified by the account. The careful distinction is that Chan recalled his father identifying himself as a spy, while the broader details of the work remain attributed to that report.
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How does the documentary fit into the story?
The article says Chan commissioned the 2003 documentary Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family, which explored his father’s history and his mother’s reported past. It also says Chan’s mother, Lee-lee, had been an opium smuggler and gambler. Those biographical details are reported in the documentary context described by the article, rather than independently established here.
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