Fantastic Four star Jessica Alba faced several challenges in her teenage years and she has been vocal about most of them. However, she kept one disturbing incident from her past close to her heart and never spoke about it publicly. When she was just 15 years old, Alba was kidnapped from the set of her show, Flipper, in 1996. She was later found bound and gagged inside the trunk of a car and her captor(s) were never brought to justice.
Even before she became a legal adult, Alba revealed she was the victim of ogling from older men. She was bullied and slut-shamed at her school for her physical appearance. Alba has also been open about her regrets in life, including her engagement with actor Michael Weatherly.
Jessica Alba Was Kidnapped In 1996 and Went Missing For 14 Hours
Hollywood celebrities like Justin Long and Kim Kardashian have been open about the traumatic events of their abduction. However, Jessica Alba chose to close the lid on the matter forever. Alba entered the world of movies and TV series at a very young age and landed her first significant role as a series regular in Flipper. While she was on cloud nine to land a major role, it quickly resulted in one of the most traumatic events of the actress’s life.
News outlets like The Sun shed light on one of the unspoken traumas of Alba’s life. According to the details provided in these reports, Alba started receiving calls from a stalker while on the set of Flipper. The Sin City actress initially thought the threatening messages to be some kind of a prank before things took a serious turn.
In 1996, when she was 15 years old, Alba disappeared from the set of Flipper. The series crew and people close to her frantically searched to find her. After being missing for 14 hours, she was luckily found. However, Alba must have been traumatized by the incident as she was bound, blindfolded, and gagged in the trunk of a car.
Police opened an investigation into the incident and Alba fully cooperated with them, according to reports. However, she had too little information to provide to the police, since her captor had blindfolded her. With very little to go on, the crime ended up being unsolved and the Honey actress never pushed for the case to move forward.
It appeared that she wanted to move on from the incident and therefore never publicly spoke about it to anyone.
Jessica Alba Opened Up About How Men Treated Her When She Was Very Young
Jessica Alba’s kidnapping by a stalker was the peak point of other mistreatments faced by the actress from older men. She revealed that these men were creepy with her when she was still legally minor and would hit on her. Alba almost lost her faith in the church when a youth pastor told her that she was mistreated because of her provocative clothing. Alba revealed that such advice gave her insecurities about her own body. She opened up with Elle:
“Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn’t. 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.”
An adult Alba also faced many challenges as a woman in the industry. She claimed that she almost considered quitting the industry when Fantastic Four director Tim Story asked her to look pretty in an emotional scene. It appears that the mistreatment eventually got to her as she permanently stepped away from the spotlight for the last few years.
Alba is currently focused on her family, including her husband Cash Warren, and her three beautiful children. She is also busy running her business, The Honest Company.
