Jessica Alba reveals why she stepped away from acting

An actor turned successful entrepreneur to opening her business venture, The Honest Company- Jessica Alba wears many hats with equal ease. Alba has recently opened up about why she took a step away from her acting career. 

In a new interview with Romper, the 39-year-old actress explained why she decided to wave goodbye to her career when she was at the top of it and revealed from where she got the motivation to do it. 

"My mother had cancer at a really young age. Many women in my family have passed from various different cancers, none of them genetic," Alba said, adding she also "grew up with chronic illness."

"I had five surgeries before I was 11 years old. I had chronic allergies, and I was hospitalized a lot as a child. I had this real moment of, I want to live, and thrive, and spend as much time with this little person that I'm bringing into the world as possible and stay," she said. "So, my health matters. I want this little person to be healthy. And it's really freaking hard to be happy when you don't have your health."

Jessica who gave birth to her first daughter Honor back in 2008 said that focusing on her health and being a mom was the reason why she stepped away from her acting career. "That's really what motivated me," the star said. "My motivation was not like, 'Am I ever going to get hired again?' Frankly, I was at the top of my career."

After Honor's birth, Alba realized she "couldn't go back to what I was doing before and be authentic. I just couldn't. I just didn't care about it anymore the same way. It was something bigger."

"I felt like if I was going to, I guess, sort of get this platform, what can I do with it that could be meaningful and make a difference," she continued. "That reality just felt so real when I became a mom for the first time."

She shared daughter Haven, 9, and son Hayes, 3, with husband Cash Warren. Recently, the actress revealed on her Instagram that her father, Mark Alba, had thyroid cancer and was undergoing "radiation therapy."

She is best known for her roles in the television series 'Flipper' (1997) and 'Dark Angel' (2000–2002) and the movies 'Sin City', 'Fantastic Four' and 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'.