Jimmy Wang (actor) - Private Life

Private Life

Wang's private life is actually more colourful than his film career. For years, his off-screen exploits thrilled newspaper and periodical readers with somewhat torrid accounts of his various affairs, well-publicised drunken bar brawls and other niceties.

In 1969, Wang married actress Jeanette Lin, who was nine years his senior. Before that, Wang had a scandalous affair with the wife of film director Qin Jian. Qin hung himself before a divorce took place. Jeanette Lin, who had a high profile in Hong Kong cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, left the industry almost immediately after her marriage. Matrimony turned out to be a tumultuous affair for both Wang and Lin. Amid allegations of wife-beating, the marriage crumbled in 1975. Wang and Lin had three daughters. Their eldest daughter Linda Wong became a popular Cantopop singer in the 1990s. Lin migrated to the United States in 1977 and died in 1995 after an asthma attack.

Wang later remarried, this time to air hostess Wang Kaizhen (王凱貞). This marriage, too, proved to be a stormy relationship and Wang Kaizhen filed for divorce. Maybe out of frustration, Wang Kaizhen started an affair with a young businessman Zhang Zhao (張昭). Having gotten wind of it, Wang, accompanied by reporters and the police, surprised the couple at their lodging and publicly exposed his wife. After public humiliation was heaped on the couple, Wang divorced his second wife in 1997.

There were other serious problems in Wang's life. In 1981, he faced a murder charge in Taiwan. However, the charge was dropped due to lack of evidence. Wang's involvement in public brawls also made headlines from time to time.