Things You Might Not Know About Jessica Alba
Published on April 28, 2016. Updated April 14, 2020Jessica Alba is the woman who has it all. She has a successful acting career, a booming business (The Honest Company) and some of the best looks in Hollywood. We’re a little envious! There’s still so much that many people don’t know about the actress turned businesswoman, so here are 10 things you didn’t know about Jessica Alba:
10. Sick Kid
She has suffered from asthma since she was a child. “I spent a lot of time in the hospital as a kid. My asthma and allergies were so severe, my throat would close up. I often had pneumonia. I even had a collapsed lung,” she said.
9. Conservative Upbringing
Jessica’s father worked in the Air Force when she was growing up and her mother was a homemaker. Her dad later went back to business school and started a mortgage and real estate company. According to her, she came from a very conservative Catholic, Latin American family; however, she herself is very liberal.
8. No Nudity
The Golden Globe nominated actress has a no nudity clause in her film contracts. “I don’t want my grandparents to see my boobs. That’s it,” she told Glamour.
(c) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
7. Ugly Duckling
She claims that she wasn’t a looker when she was younger. She was sickly, bucktoothed and swaybacked. According to her, she was also friendless and was even picked on until the other girls saw her photos in Seventeen magazine.
6. The Acting Bug
Jessica decided when she was 12 that she wanted to be an actress, much to her father’s dismay. She got an agent and booked parts on a couple after school specials and then secured a guest spot on Chicago Hope.
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5. Big Break
She landed her first big role in 1994 on the short-lived remake of the classic aquatic adventure series, Flipper. The show was filmed in Gold Coast, Australia, so she had to pick up and move there for the duration of filming.
Photo by David Niviere/ABACAPRESS.COM
4. Born Again
The Honey star was born again when she was 13. She followed the tenets of the Calvary Church. She swore off secular music and TV and spent a considerable amount of time praying for salvation with other teens. She fell out with the church when she was 16. “I did this episode of Chicago Hope playing a girl who had gonorrhea in her throat,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “And my friends from church made me feel so bad about it. Like I wasn’t a good Christian. It started making me bitter toward the church.”
Gregorio Binuya/Everett Collection
3. Anorexia
She struggled with anorexia earlier in her career. For her role in Dark Angel, she adopted an intense exercise regime and, at one point, got down to 100 pounds. “A lot of girls have eating disorders, and I did too,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I got obsessed with it. When I went from a girl’s body to a woman’s body with natural fat in places, I freaked out.”
© 20th Century Fox Film Corp
2. First Love
When the Flipper star was 19, she started dating her Dark Angel co-star Michael Weatherly who was 13 years her senior. They were together for three years and were even engaged at one point, but broke up in 2003.
1. The Real Deal
Jessica met her husband, Cash Warren, on the set of 2004’s Fantastic Four. He was the director’s assistant and she was one of the film’s stars. They started dating in January 2005 and were married in 2008. They have two daughters together, Honor and Haven, and one son, Hayes.
