Why Jessica Alba Refuses To Talk About Being Kidnapped At 15 & Her Troubled Past
She grew up in a strict, religious household.
Andrea Raffin | Ga Fullner | Shutterstock Actress Jessica Alba rose to fame in the late 90s/early 2000s, starring in films such as 'Honey' and later 'Fantastic Four.'
Even though Alba, 41, remains mostly private about her personal life, her dark past has often resurfaced, including an incident where she was kidnapped when she was 15.
Jessica Alba was kidnapped for 14 hours back in 1996.
At the time, Alba was on the set of her first show 'Flipper.' She had begun receiving strange calls, which she disregarded as a prank.
Shortly after the strange calls, Alba was kidnapped from the set and was missing for 14 hours, only to be found blindfolded, gagged, and bound in the trunk of a car after an extensive search.
The case was eventually dismissed after Alba was unable to provide any information to authorities, and has since refused to speak publicly about the kidnapping.
Growing up, Alba was part of the Catholic Church but later decided to move away from her religious affiliations as a teenager.
In an interview with The Daily Beast in 2017, Alba opened up about the church's treatment of women, and how that had made her uncomfortable.
"Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't," the actress recalled. "It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.”
Alba also spoke about being bullied when she was younger because she had gone through puberty at a young age, which caused her to be labeled a "slut" by school administrators.
From the bullying, Alba developed an eating disorder.
"A lot of girls have eating disorders and I did too,” she said. “I became obsessed with it. I never see myself as a beautiful woman and have never traded on that to get ahead in this business.”
Alba shared that growing up in such a religious family meant that she didn't believe in sex before marriage, and “whoever asked her out” during her teenage years, she was never intimate with them.
“I basically went out with any guy who asked me because hardly anyone ever asked me out,” Alba said.
It wasn't until she started acting and becoming more involved in the entertainment industry did she start questioning her religious upbringing.
Alba's biggest revelation came after she "fell in love" with a bisexual man when she was 16, saying that she "used to go to this gay club and I’d dance with him all night, four nights a week."
"I fell in love when I was 16 and had this major crush on… I guess he was a drag queen? He was bisexual and a ballerina, and this was while I was at the Atlantic Theater Company in Vermont," Alba said.
"I was so in love with him and thought, “There’s no way this guy’s going to hell,” because in my church, it was, 'Anybody who’s gay is going to hell' and 'Premarital sex is evil,' and I thought, 'There’s no chance! This guy is amazing!'"
"[It was] very twisted."
Now, we know Alba as a successful actress, astute business woman and loving mother so it sounds like she overcame a lot to be who she is today.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.