In 2008, Alba told the Sydney Morning Herald that she had encountered a ghost when she was 17 while staying at her parents' home. "I had no idea what it was. I felt this pressure and I couldn't get up, I couldn't scream, I couldn't talk, I couldn't do anything," she said. "Something definitely took the covers off me and I definitely couldn't get off the bed, and then, once I did, I screamed, ran to my parents' room and I don't think I spent many nights in that house ever again! There was definitely something in my parents' old house — I don't know what it was. I can't really explain it. But they got it blessed and they burned sage and stuff since then."