Jean-Claude Van Damme’s son accused of holding roommate at knifepoint, drug possession

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s son was arrested Sunday in Tempe, Arizona, on charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

TMZ reports that Nicholas Van Varenberg, the 21-year-old youngest child of the Belgian actor and martial artist, was also booked on charges of unlawful imprisonment, marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia after an incident involving his roommate.

Police sources told TMZ that officers responded to a call to check on Van Varenberg after he allegedly punched the elevator in his apartment building. When authorities arrived, they found a trail of blood leading to his apartment. They learned that Van Varenberg had injured his hand after speaking with him and his roommate.

Approximately twenty minutes after the officers left, Van Varenberg’s roommate ran downstairs from the apartment and claimed that he he had escaped the apartment after Van Varenberg had held him at knifepoint. He told authorities that his roommate was angry that he had opened the door for police officers earlier.

Police then found a knife and marijuana in the apartment.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, nicknamed “The Muscles from Brussels” whose full name is Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, also has two older children: a son and daughter with his third and fifth wife, former body builder Gladys Portugues, to whom he has been remarried since 1999.

After divorcing Portugues, Van Damme married his fourth wife, actress Darcy LaPier, in 1994. Their son Nicholas was born in 1995.

In an August 2012 interview with Fox News Entertainment, LaPier said she was “shocked” by Van Damme’s admission during an interview that week with the Guardian of an affair with costar Kylie Minogue on the set of their 1994 film, Street Fighter.

LaPier told Fox News that she learned of the affair through her ex-husband’s interview.

“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.”

In the same 2012 interview, LaPier also claimed that Van Damme had not paid child support in seven years.

According to IMDb, Nicholas Van Varenberg appears in the yet-to-be-released film Kickboxer: Retaliation, which also stars his father.

 

Feature photo: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office