A SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE: JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME AND GLADYS PORTUGUES

Jean-Claude Van Damme married Gladys Portugues twice. Between those two weddings came a divorce, another marriage, and years spent apart, yet he still found his way back to her.

Van Damme first noticed Gladys long before they became a couple. She was already a successful bodybuilder competing at the highest levels when he saw her photograph in a fitness magazine. Years later, they met during a photo shoot. They began dating in the mid-1980s, married in 1987, and welcomed their son Kristopher and daughter Bianca. At the time, Van Damme’s Hollywood career exploded with hit films like Bloodsport and Kickboxer.

However, their marriage could not withstand the turmoil. In 1992, they divorced after his relationship with actress Darcy LaPier, whom he married in 1994. That marriage also ended. By the late 1990s, Jean-Claude began reconnecting with Gladys and their children, seeking peace after years of chaos.

On June 25, 1999, Jean-Claude and Gladys remarried in Belgium. It was his fifth marriage, and his second to the same woman. Their relationship still faced challenges—Gladys filed for divorce again in 2015, but within months, they reconciled, choosing to keep their family whole and stay together.

Their story is not a simple Hollywood fairytale. They separated, built other lives, and found each other again. Nearly 40 years after their first wedding, the woman Van Damme once lost remains the anchor he returned to.