Jessica Alba is sharing the emotional moment she surprised her parents with a soon-to-be renovated home — but it wasn’t just any house!
On Friday, Aug. 30, the Trigger Warning actress — who teams up with co-host Lizzy Mathis on their Roku Original series Honest Renovations — shared a video to her YouTube channel about a “special renovation” that the pair were behind: her father’s childhood home.
“Almost three years ago, I started the project of my dreams… I surprised my parents by buying them a house!! 🤩🏠🎉🎁 Now, it wasn’t just any house — it was extra sentimental as it was my grandfather’s house that my father grew up in 🥹,” Alba, 43, wrote in the video’s description.
“After my grandfather passed away, my parents were planning on selling the house in order to pay for my grandmother’s medical bills. Well… I pretended like I was going to help them flip it before selling when in reality, I had planned to buy it for them all along.”
Alba revealed in the clip that the family home was going to “be put up for sale,” given that her grandmother requires 24/7 care, so she decided to update it with the help of Mathis and a family friend (and contractor) named Tinku.
After gutting the house and locking in floor plans, Alba broke the news to her parents in a portion of the video recorded in June 2021 and published this week.
“The last piece of the puzzle is I have been trying to figure out how to tell you guys that I’m gonna buy you guys this house,” Alba said. “So don’t buy it yourself.”
The video then cut to a shot of Alba hugging her parents — Mark and Catherine — as they became visibly emotional. “Now the house that you grew up in, Dad, is yours,” Alba said, before Mark sat down and covered his face, telling his daughter that her grandfather would “be proud of you.”
“I know he’d be really proud of my baby girl,” he later added. “I’m able to live in the house and hopefully make him proud.”
Mark Alba, Jessica Alba, Catherine Jensen seen at Los Angeles Premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s production ‘LUZIA’ on December 12, 2017.
Eric Charbonneau/Getty
While the house surprise is now viewable on YouTube, Alba teased at the end of the video that a second part — where fans can see the renovation process — is coming soon.
“Even just watching this trailer back, I’m filled with so many feels — after keeping in this big secret, letting my parents in in the surprise, followed by many many months of working to make the house perfect for my parents, I can’t believe this really happened,” Alba wrote in the video description.
“Grampers, this one is for you — we love and miss you more than you know 🫶🏽❤️ Now, a huge shout out to my partners in crime – @lizzymathis, Tinku and everyone else that helped turn this dream into a reality – I could not have done this without you!”
