was born in Pomona, California, to Mark Alba, who is Mexican American and Catherine ,who has French and Danish ancestry; the two married while in their teenage years. Jessica Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a burst appendix, and a cyst on her tonsils. 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.