NCIS’ Michael Weatherly’s controversial engagement to Hollywood star
The actor was engaged to Jessica Alba from 2001 to 2003
Michael Weatherly proposed to Hollywood actress Jessica Alba in 2001, but their 13-year age gap sparked controversy. The former couple met on the set of Fox’s Dark Angel in January 2000, when Jessica was 18, and Michael was 30. While the NCIS star had waited to pop the question on Jessica’s 20th birthday, the A-lister revealed that her parents weren’t impressed. The celebrity couple eventually called it quits in 2003.
Following their previous engagement, in 2007 Jessica recalled: “I don’t know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren’t happy. They’re really religious. They believe God wouldn’t allow the Bible to be written if it wasn’t what they are supposed to believe. I’m completely different.”
Jessica was also asked about the breakup in a 2005 interview with Cosmopolitan and told the publication: “It just didn’t work out. I was so young, 18, when I started dating him. I was a virgin. I knew I wanted to be in love with the first person I slept with because for almost everyone I knew, the first experience made them feel like [expletive]. So I wanted to be really careful that he was going to be in love with me and wasn’t just going to leave me.”
She added: “It’s really, really, really difficult to have the same occupation as the person you’re with—especially when you’re both actors. Actors are pulled in so many different directions that unless you both are absolutely into it through thick and thin and completely sure about each other, it’s just hard. I’ve decided I’ll never date an actor again.”
