Michael Weatherly and Jessica Alba have made rare comments about their relationship — and how their age gap contributed to their split — in the years since ending their engagement.
Weatherly and Alba started dating after meeting on the set of Dark Angel. The sci-fi drama, which ran from 2000 to 2002, marked Alba’s breakout role as Max Guevara, a genetically-engineered super solider on the run from government agents in a post-apocalyptic version of Seattle.
After sharing the screen, Weatherly and Alba sparked romance rumors when she was 18 years old and he was 30. They got engaged one year later but ultimately called it quits in 2003.
Alba went on to marry Cash Warren in 2008, with whom she shares three children. The couple have since called it quits after 16 years of marriage. Weatherly, meanwhile, married Bojana Janković in 2009 and they expanded their family twice.
In the years since their breakup, Weatherly and Alba have been candid about their relationship and what they learned from the experience. Their Dark Angel costar Jensen Ackles also surprised fans when he later revealed that he was at odds with Alba during their time filming the show — and how her personal life played a role.
Keep scrolling to relive Weatherly and Alba’s romance:
2000
Weatherly and Alba met on the set of Dark Angel when the show — which was cocreated by James Cameron — started filming in Vancouver in 2000. They started dating that same year while playing Max and Logan, respectively.
2001
After one year of dating, the pair got engaged and Dark Angel was ultimately canceled while they were still together.
2003
Weatherly and Alba called off their engagement in 2003.
2005
Alba recalled how the age difference between her and Weatherly played a role in their split.
“It just didn’t work out. 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 s***,” she told Cosmopolitan about being “so young” when she got engaged. “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.”
Alba changed her perspective on dating actors after her failed engagement.
“It’s really, really, really difficult to have the same occupation as the person you’re with — especially when you’re both actors,” she continued. “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.”
She concluded: “I’ve decided I’ll never date an actor again.”
2010
While speaking about his hit series NCIS, Weatherly compared the CBS show to his time on Dark Angel.
“I remember very strongly the inevitable feeling I had about Jessica when we were doing Dark Angel because it was like I was the Millennium Falcon being sucked into the tractor beam,” Weatherly shared with TV Guide in 2010. “I didn’t feel I had any control over that part of my life. I think that the same thing does happen for Tony [in NCIS].”
2016
Alba appeared to reference her relationship with Weatherly while discussing a tattoo she got after her first major breakup.
“It’s lotus in Sanskrit. It means the manifestation of spiritual beauty,” she shared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “He was really anti-tattoos, and I felt like after I broke up with him, I found myself again. It’s unnecessary to talk about this. He’s like a famous actor.”
2022
Weatherly and Alba’s romance made headlines again when Ackles opened up about the “horrible” experience he had working on Dark Angel. During an appearance on the “Inside of You” podcast, Ackles told host Michael Rosenbaum that Alba “didn’t make it easy” for him on set.
“It wasn’t that she didn’t like me. She just was like, ‘Oh, here’s the pretty boy that the network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need,’” Ackles said about their conflict. “We bickered like brother and sister.”
He added: “She was under an immense amount of pressure on that show. She was young, she was in a relationship and that was … causing some undue stress, I believe.”
Ackles, who has remained on friendly terms with Weatherly in the years since Dark Angel, confirmed he was in a better place with Alba now.
“I love Jess, which I know kind of contradicts what I just said,” he noted. “If she walked in, we’d be all hugs.”
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