Kylie Minogue’s love life made global headlines again this month — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was forced to publicly apologise after naming her in a viral “shag, marry, date” moment on the Bush Deep podcast. It’s a reminder that this isn’t the first time Minogue’s personal life has made international news. Decades earlier, one of her co-stars made an even bigger admission — about an affair that happened on the set of one of the most notorious video game movies ever made.
The production of Street Fighter (1994) was plagued by on-set challenges, including Jean-Claude Van Damme’s substance abuse and affair with Kylie Minogue, making it an infamous video game adaptation.
Inside the Doomed Making of Street Fighter (1994)
Video game live-action adaptations have never been seen as shining examples of quality cinema. Far from it. However, when it comes to misguided attempts to represent a popular gaming franchise, no production even comes close to the levels of cheesiness on display in Street Fighter, starring none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme.
This unapologetically 90s adaptation of the arcade phenomenon has become synonymous with subpar video game adaptations, and it’s easy to see why. From its basic understanding of the Street Fighter lore to its focus on secondary characters over the more iconic ones, everything about this movie screams “misdirection.”
However, as more info about the torturous shooting process in Thailand emerges, one can’t help but marvel at the fact that the movie even made it to theatres. From heat exhaustion to freak accidents, Street Fighter‘s production was anything but easy.
At the center of the story was action megastar Jean-Claude Van Damme. Seeing as how the Belgian martial artist was experiencing a slight decay in popularity after successes like Bloodsport and Kickboxer, we can see why he’d agree to appear in a movie like Street Fighter.
How Van Damme and Kylie Minogue’s Romance Began
Van Damme played the role of Guile, a special forces operative sent to destroy M. Bison and the forces of Shadaloo. However, he was not alone, as he was joined by the gorgeous but deadly Cammy, played by Kylie Minogue. Van Damme was immediately astonished by Minogue’s looks, as he admitted in an interview with The Guardian in 2012. And that’s not the only thing that happened between the two.
As it turns out, Van Damme was dealing with serious substance abuse at the time. Director Steven E. de Souza had to come up with excuses and new scenes each time the actor couldn’t show up on the set, leading to the studio hiring a private “bouncer” to keep an eye on Van Damme’s escapades.
Van Damme’s Exact Words: “I Showed Her My Thailand”
As the budding romance between the recently re-married Van Damme and Minogue began to show. Van Damme confesses that the affair progressed naturally as he showed his co-star the country they were in. “I knew Thailand very well, so I showed her my Thailand,” is how he says the whole affair began.
Van Damme had just married actress Darcy LaPier that same year – a relationship that also began with an affair. The most shocking part of the whole ordeal is that LaPier was unaware of Van Damme’s infidelity until 2012, when the actor publicly admitted the affair in his interview with The Guardian.
Why It Took Van Damme 25 Years to Admit the Affair
Van Damme’s 2012 confession wasn’t a one-off. He’d actually first hinted at the affair back in 2007, telling Empire magazine that meeting Minogue was one of the few good things to come out of an otherwise “corny” shoot. Even after going fully on the record with The Guardian in 2012, he kept getting asked about it — and kept getting visibly tired of the question. During a 2016 appearance on Australian breakfast show Sunrise, he cut an interviewer off mid-question, saying he’d been fielding the same line of questioning for 25 years and found it tiresome to keep revisiting.
LaPier’s reaction, once she found out, was its own story. Reflecting on meeting Minogue years earlier without knowing what had happened between them, she said: “Kylie always seemed intimidated by me, and now I know why.” She’s said she speaks to Van Damme regularly and made clear the revelation didn’t sit well with her.
The Fallout on a Chaotic Set
It would be unfair to just blame De Souza for the general unruliness of the Street Fighter set – if anything, the filmmaker went above and beyond to come up with content to fill in the gaps during Van Damme’s indisposition. Still, it’s a marvel to see just how cursed the production of Street Fighter could be.
A few years later, in 1997, Van Damme divorced LaPier, and he has remained single ever since. It seems as if, for the kickboxer, the bachelor life is more convenient. Still, the affair between Van Damme and Minogue is just one of the behind-the-scenes stories that make Street Fighter such a fascinating cinematic oddity.
Van Damme’s Old Role Is Being Recast for 2026
The affair isn’t the only reason this shoot is back in conversation. A brand-new Street Fighter reboot, produced by Legendary Pictures and Capcom, hits theatres on October 16, 2026 — and the role Van Damme made infamous, Guile, has been handed to WWE star Cody Rhodes. It’s a fittingly chaotic full-circle moment: Rhodes has said filming got tense enough that crew thought a real fight was about to break out. Whether the new film can shake the reputation the original never escaped remains to be seen — but it’s guaranteed to send curious fans back to the 1994 version, affair and all.
Van Damme vs. Minogue: Two Very Different 2026s
The two leads’ careers went in very different directions after Street Fighter. Van Damme’s box office pull faded through the late ’90s and 2000s, and he spent much of the following two decades in direct-to-video action films before a run of self-aware comeback roles. Minogue, meanwhile, is having arguably her biggest year in decades: her 2023 single “Padam Padam” became a viral, career-reviving hit, Netflix released a three-part documentary on her life and career in May 2026, and she’s since confirmed plans for a 2027 tour marking her 40th anniversary in music.
With her love life now making headlines again thanks to Australia’s own Prime Minister — and Van Damme’s old role about to hit theatres under someone else’s name — this three-decade-old Street Fighter story is getting a second look.
RELATED: The Jean-Claude Van Damme Movie Donald Trump Can’t Stop Watching
Street Fighter |
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In the midst of a civil war in South East Asia, a general intensifies the climate of violence by kidnapping 63 UN delegates. To free the hostages, a colonel leads a group of fighters, who will have to use all their skills to be successful. |
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| Studio: Edward R. Pressman Productions, Capcom Co. Ltd. |
| Running Time: 102 minutes |
| Release Date: December 23, 1994 |
| Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Wes Studi |
| Director: Steven E. de Souza |
| Writers: Steven E. de Souza |
| Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy |
| Box Office: $99.4 million |
“A few years later, in 1997, Van Damme divorced LaPier, and he has remained single ever since.”
Not true, he remarried Gladys Portugues in 1999.