Back in 1994, an unlikely casting choice led to a steamy on-set affair. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue both appeared in the action movie Street Fighter, based on the hit video game of the same name. While Van Damme was a major action star by the time he was cast as William F. Guile, Minogue was famous for her pop star career and for her role on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Street Fighter director Steven E. de Souza admitted that he cast Minogue as Cammy White at the last minute after seeing her on a magazine cover.
The movie was not a success, but it did follow Minogue and Van Damme around for years because of the gossip it generated: For years, it was rumored that the co-stars had an affair when they were making Street Fighter. Van Damme finally admitted to the fling almost 20 years later, during a 2012 interview with The Guardian, thought he also made it clear that he wasn’t too keen to talk about it. In fact, when he was asked about it during a different interview, he got up and walked out. Read on to find out more.
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Van Damme was interviewed by The Guardian in 2012 to promote his movie The Expendables 2. The reporter wrote that when he asked the actor about his reported affair with Minogue, the actor “bristle[d].”
“Oh … who said that to you?” Van Damme responded. The Guardian noted that the Bloodsport star had brought the relationship up himself before in a past interview.
“I tell you what, you should ask her,” Van Damme continued. “She’ll have a better memory. I’m 51 years old, do you know how much I was punched in the face on The Expendables? No, no. No. And let’s just say it happened, so what? Who wants to know?” (For the record, Minogue is seven younger than Van Damme.)
When The Guardian reporter told Van Damme that he was only trying to verify the information, the actor opened up.
“Sometimes you let go of stuff … I don’t know, maybe,” Van Damme continued, eventually admitting, “Yes. OK. Yes, yes, yes. It happened. I was in Thailand, we had an affair.”
He then went into detail. “Sweet kiss, beautiful lovemaking. It would be abnormal not to have had an affair, she’s so beautiful and she was there in front of me every day with a beautiful smile, simpatico, so charming, she wasn’t acting like a big star. I knew Thailand very well, so I showed her my Thailand. She’s a great lady.”
According to The New Zealand Herald, Van Damme explained that meeting Minogue was one of the positive outcomes of making the poorly received movie during a 2007 interview with Empire magazine.
“Street Fighter was corny to me,” the actor and martial artist said. “But there were nice things. I got to see the land of Australia and had a mini-affair with Kylie Minogue. If you ever see her, say hello for me to Kylie.”
For her part, Minogue has not spoken out publicly about her Street Fighter co-star.
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At the time that Street Fighter was released, Van Damme was married to his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier. They split in 1997 after welcoming a son together.
LaPier claimed that she didn’t know about her husband’s affair with Minogue until his 2012 Guardian interview.
“I was shocked he would talk to the press about this all these years later to gain some notoriety,” LaPier told FOX411. “I didn’t know about it, I have had my feelings hurt and I feel betrayed. There is a lot of water under the bridge between us, but the fact is I was pregnant with our son at the time. He’s almost 17 now and I wouldn’t want him finding out all of this and being hurt by it too.”
LaPier also recounted meeting Minogue. “Kylie always seemed intimidated by me, and now I know why,” she said. “I speak to [him] about once a week so I will say something. This is not cool.”
Though he had addressed it in the past, Van Damme was not pleased to be asked about Minogue again in 2016. During an appearance on the Australian show Sunrise, the Timecop star said he was uncomfortable discussing the affair and found the questions “boring,” as reported by the Evening Standard.
“I like Kylie. I like everybody,” he said. “Sorry, guys I cannot do this. You are talking to a guy who is very rough, you know?”
He continued, “The press they’ve been asking me the same question for the last 25 years. Kylie, how’s your training, how’s your this, how’s your that … Those interviews you are giving me on TV right now, they are very boring, because the questions are boring. It’s difficult for me to answer those questions, so I start to sweat. I don’t feel good.” He then said he had to go to the restroom, took off his microphone, and asked for filming to stop.