Early life

Alba was born to a Mexican father of Spanish-Native American descent; her maternal grandfather was Danish, and her maternal grandmother was of French, Italian and English descent. Jessica was raised in a military family, living with her parents, her brother Joshua, and her grandparents until she was sixteen. She grew up a sports fanatic and terrorized teachers and grandparents alike with her rebellious behavior. Her father's navy career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California when Jessica was nine. Jessica's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies, as she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, and suffered a burst appendix, a cyst on her tonsils, asthma, anorexia, and a kidney infection. This served to isolate her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a child. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.