Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly Reflect on Doomed Engagement and Age Gap

In the years since their high-profile relationship and engagement, former co-stars Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly have reflected on the challenges they faced. The two met on the set of the sci-fi drama "Dark Angel" in 2000, when Alba was 18 and Weatherly was 30. They soon began dating and got engaged a year later, but ultimately called it quits in 2003.

Alba has since attributed the age gap and her own inexperience as factors in their split. "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. "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."

Weatherly, meanwhile, has compared the intensity of his "Dark Angel" romance to the relationships of his "NCIS" character. "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," he shared.

Their co-star Jensen Ackles also revealed that Alba "didn't make it easy" for him on the "Dark Angel" set, saying she was under "immense pressure" due to her personal life at the time. However, Ackles noted that he and Alba are now on good terms.