Jet Li said he did not abandon his two eldest daughters and that he left his first marriage with empty-handed. The denial came in a recent interview with Yang Lan that Chinese media reported on October 11, after years of rumors about what happened when his marriage to Huang Qiu Yan ended.
Li said he and Huang Qiu Yan separated amicably and discussed the division of assets and responsibilities toward their children when the marriage ended. He said he left his assets to Huang Qiu Yan and took on the responsibility of raising their two daughters, adding: "There's no way I abandoned my child,"
1987 Marriage, Then Separation
Jet Li married Huang Qiu Yan in 1987, after the two former martial arts students had served together on the Beijing wushu team. They had two daughters, Li Si and Li Tai Mi, and the marriage lasted about three years before it ended.
According to Chinese media, Huang Qiu Yan was granted custody of her two daughters after the divorce, and the two older daughters mainly grew up under the care of their maternal grandparents in Beijing. That custody split is the part many readers will want to focus on, because it separates parental responsibility from where the girls actually lived after the breakup.
October 11 Denial
On October 11, Li addressed the accusation directly: he said he had never shirked his financial responsibilities or his obligation to raise his children, and he said his children were provided with adequate education and living conditions. His account draws a line between the public rumor and the practical arrangement he says followed the divorce.
The contradiction is why this story still has weight. For years, many people believed he abandoned his first family; Li says instead that he left the marriage with nothing, gave his assets to Huang Qiu Yan, and remained responsible for his daughters even if his film work kept him away from day-to-day parenting for long stretches.
Li Zhi and Later Life
Li publicly revealed his relationship with Li Zhi after the divorce, and they married in 1999. He later said that his busy film career made him feel guilty and remorseful about not being present enough during his children's upbringing, which is the closest thing here to a practical answer for readers still sorting rumor from record.
The clean takeaway is simple: Li is trying to reset the story around his first family, not by denying the divorce or the custody outcome, but by saying the split included an agreed division of assets and duties. The unanswered detail that remains most relevant is the exact custody and support arrangement after the divorce, because that is where public suspicion and his own account still do not fully meet.
