'She waited for my call': Jeremy Chan got Jesseca Liu's number for work but she thought otherwise

Asking for someone’s number for ‘work’ may be a convenient excuse to get closer for some, but when actor-host Jeremy Chan got his future wife Jesseca Liu’s number, it really was on the behalf of his boss.

On the latest episode of the meWATCH talk show Hear U Out, Jeremy recalled how he initially made Jesseca’s acquaintance.

“The variety and drama teams usually travel in different buses,” he explained. “One day, after I finished filming, she was also heading back to the office, so she hitched a ride with us.” 

Not one to like awkward silences, the 41-year-old struck up a brief conversation with the actress. So when his then-boss asked Jeremy if he knew her and was able to get her number to “engage her for our events”, Jeremy answered in the affirmative.

The only problem? 

When they reunited on the set of a drama almost a decade later, Jesseca admitted that she thought getting her number “for his boss” was a pick-up line.

Jeremy said: “She waited for my call, but I never called.”

Thankfully, Jesseca, 43, didn’t simply become ‘the one that got away’ for Jeremy, as they started getting closer while filming.

“I realised [I wouldn’t mind dating her] when we could talk on the phone till morning,” he said, adding that they would chat until “2am or even 4am”.

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Dating Jesseca, one of the seven princesses of Mediacorp, didn’t feel like much pressure to Jeremy at first, considering the both of them had managed to keep it under wraps, until their relationship was revealed to the media.

“We took a walk in Chinatown to see the Lunar New Year bazaar and someone photographed us,” Jeremy recalled. 

“They said, ‘People say you’re dating Jesseca Liu’,” but when Jeremy responded with a “Really?” the photographer took it as an implicit agreement instead of a question.

Netizens at the time started leaving him hate messages, but it was veteran actor Chen Hanwei who reassured Jeremy: “Ignore the comments, what matters is that you’re happy.”

It’s safe to say that Jeremy makes Jesseca happy too.

Maybe a bit too much for the cast and crew of 2021’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Ghost though, since Jesseca simply couldn’t stop laughing at his antics.

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Jeremy said: “She laughed and could never look me in the eye. She looked at the top of my head or my nose.

“They said, ‘Why do you laugh when you see your husband every day?’”

As a comedian, Jeremy cites Stephen Chow as an inspiration, but feels he may be more akin to Wong Cho Lam, considering the Hong Kong entertainer is “a fair bit shorter than his wife” — much like Jeremy himself.

But is Jeremy’s humour rubbing off on Jesseca?

“I think she’s getting funnier!” he said. “Perhaps she’s also seen a lot of my work.”

drimac@asiaone.com