Jessica Alves

Jessica Alves
Born	(1983-07-30) 30 July 1983 (age 38) São Paulo, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian and British
Other names	Rodrigo Alves, Roddy Alves, Jezz
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	London College of Communication
Occupation	TV celebrity, air steward[1]
Known for	Extensive plastic surgeries[2]
Parent(s)	Roserval Alves (father)

Jessica Alves (formerly Rodrigo Alves; born 30 July 1983)^[3] is a Brazilian-British television personality noted for having undergone dozens of plastic surgeries to alter her appearance.

Early life and education[]

Alves was born on 30 July 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil to a Brazilian mother and a British father.^[4] Her father, Roserval Alves, hailed from a family of Europeans who arrived in Brazil in the 1940s.^[5] Initially the family was in the farming trade but expanded their business involvement to include supermarkets, shopping centres and real estate.^[5] When she was young, her grandfather bought her Barbie dolls and allowed her to dress. Although Alves was assigned male at birth, from a young age—“since the age of three, four, five, six”—she knew she was a woman, played with dolls, cross dressed, and was in touch with her feminine side.^[6][7] She feels people should not be defined by gender.^[8] She was shy, and bullied throughout childhood.^[9] As a teen, Alves had a hormone dysfunction, with too much estrogen causing breast tissue to grow; her other features were also picked on by the bullies.^[9][7] Her family has a string of grocery stores in Brazil which has made them wealthy, but as of 2018, Alves has not made any profit relating to the stores.^[10]

Alves moved to London at age nineteen, where she studied public relations at London College of Communication.^[3][4] Her money comes from an inheritance her maternal grandparents left for her.^[5]

Biography[]

Alves has had several surgeries, including nose jobs which resulted in the loss of her sense of smell.^[9] Soon after that experience she underwent a surgery in Brazil to inject a gel into her arms to make them look more muscular.^[9] She lost use of both arms for a while and the experience compelled her to seek psychotherapy.^[9] In 2013 Alves was diagnosed with body dysmorphia — a “mental health condition where a person spends an obsessive amount of time worrying about flaws in their appearance”.^[9]

Alves appeared on the American reality series Botched in 2017 (Season 4, episode 4), where cosmetic surgeons attempt to improve unsuccessful cosmetic surgeries. Paul Nassif, M.D. refused to do additional rhinoplasty on Alves, noting the nasal passages were blocked with scarring, nasal tissue had not recovered from previous surgeries, and Alves was at risk of substantial necrosis.^[11]

As of 2018, Alves has luxury homes in London and Marbella, Spain, and was a regular presenter on television.^[5][10] She has a sizable monthly pension from her grandparents, and is heir to properties in Puerto Banús in Spain that she rents out to tourists.^[5] Her net worth in 2018 was estimated at over £30 million.^[5] In 2018 Alves was jetting between London and Brazil for work and found that being recognized everywhere—and being asked for selfies—had its downside, and felt a new freedom when cross dressing as Jessica.^[10] The idea of transitioning gender identity, outwardly, to permanently being female was put on hold, in part because of objections from her father.^[10]

As of January 2018, Alves has spent just over £500,000 (equivalent to $512,784 in 2019) undergoing 103 cosmetic procedures, including injections, 51 of which were plastic surgeries.^[12][3] Alves has undergone liposuction, had gel filler injected into shoulders, biceps, and triceps, applies minoxidil topically, has had hair implants and a number of facelifts, wears tinted contact lenses, and has had twelve rhinoplasties.^[4] Her first plastic surgery was at the age of 17 to remove gynecomastia.^[4] Her first nose job was when she was nineteen, As of March 2020 she has spent an estimated £650,000 on sixty operations to emulate the iconic Barbie doll.^[13] Alves recounted that pre-transition she tried to compensate for her lack of masculine tendencies by trying to look more so through the surgeries, "I'd always felt feminine and when I struggled to be manly with my personality, I decided to make my appearance as masculine as possible instead, ... But no matter how much I looked like Ken nothing eased the pain of being Barbie inside."^[13]

In August 2018, Alves appeared on the UK television show Celebrity Big Brother as a celebrity housemate. After using the n-word in a conversation about the type of sexual partner she preferred, Alves was given a final warning by producers that if she repeated the offensive language she would be evicted from the house. The incident garnered over 1,000 complaints to regulator Ofcom.^[14] After an unspecified "incident", Alves was expelled from the show in the early hours of the morning on the tenth day.^[15][16]

In March 2019, Alves released a song with Italian plastic surgeon Giacomo Urtis called "Plastic World".^[17]

In January 2020, Alves came out as transgender after three months of living in privacy.^[18] She shared that she had always been depressed and felt that as risky as more surgeries were, she needed to transition or she would die.^[6][19] During the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic she was separated from her family but reunited with them in June.^[6] In July 2020, Alves announced that she had changed her name to Jessica.^[20] In August her father died. He was always worried about Jessica dying from a surgery, but they remained close throughout her life.^[6]

In February 2021, Jessica Alves had a sex reassignment surgery in Bangkok, Thailand.^[21]

References[]

External links[]

• Jessica Alves at IMDb
• Jessica Alves on Instagram