When someone mentions Jet Li’s wife, it’s former screen beauty Nina Li Chi who people immediately think about. After all, they have been happily married since 1999 and have two daughters together.
What many people don’t know is that this is Jet’s second marriage, and that he was married to former Chinese actress Huang Qiuyan for three years before splitting up in 1990.
According to reports, the couple had met when they were both wushu students at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School. Despite Qiuyan being two years older than Jet, they got along well, and in June 1987, they quietly registered their marriage.
Both their parents were not present at the solemnisation, and the couple did not have a fancy ceremony either. In 1988, Jet decided to venture to the US to further his career, and Qiuyan, who was then seven months pregnant, gave up her showbiz career to be with her husband. She later gave birth to two daughters, Si Li and Taimi Li, who are now in their twenties.
In 1989, Jet fell in love with Nina while filming the movie Dragon Fight together. Sources claim that the actor realised that he did not know what love was before meeting Nina and that he soon asked Qiuyan for a divorce.
While it’s believed that Jet had given most of his assets to his former wife in their divorce settlement, Qiuyan was rumoured to have run into financial problems and had to resort to staying with her friends and family members. That’s not all. The reports also claim that Jet married Qiuyan only because his godmother, who is a medium, had told him that he had to do so if he wants his luck to improve . She had given this piece of advice after his health took a turn for the worse, and she believed that the positive energy from an auspicious event like a marriage would change things.
Despite all that, it’s said that Qiuyan has had nothing but good things to say about Jet after their divorce and she has been praised by netizens for her forgiving and understanding nature.
So it’s no surprise that the former couple has remained on friendly terms, and when Qiuyan remarried in 2005, Jet reportedly gave her a US$50,000 (S$71,000) ang pow to mark the happy occasion.