Jessica Athayde

Jéssica Alexis Elizabeth Ross de Athayde (born Lisbon, December 21, 1985), better known as Jessica Athayde, is a British-Portuguese actress.

Biography and career

Jessica Athayde was born on December 21, 1985, in Lisbon.

She began her career in the highly successful teen soap opera Morangos Com Açúcar and later moved on to non-teen soap operas on TVI, a television station with which she maintained an exclusive contract until 2020 and where she worked for over 10 years.

Her resume includes works such as Ilha dos Amores, Flor do Mar, A Outra, Doce Tentação, Destinos Cruzados, Mulheres, Santa Bárbara and A Herdeira, some of which were audience leaders.

In March 2015, she published a book, Don't Try to Be Perfect - But Do Your Best, about her experience with food and body image and in 2016 the book My Orient, about her travels to the Orient.

On her blog, titled Jessy James, Jessica Athayde shares what makes her happy: her travels, her recipes, and her daily life.

She is one of the Portuguese public figures with the most followers on the social network Instagram, already counting more than one million followers.

In 2021, the actress was hired by SIC to strengthen the channel's fiction programming. Jessica's debut on the channel was in the series Princípio, Meio e Fim. In the same year, for the same channel, she joined the cast of the series O Clube on SIC's streaming platform, OPTO. The following year, she starred in the soap opera Lua de Mel.

She made her presenting debut in 2021, when she was invited by Daniel Oliveira to present one of the episodes of the weekly program Estamos em Casa on SIC.

In 2024, she was one of the judges on the program SuperEstrelas on RTP1.

Personal life

Born from an extramarital affair of her father, she was never accepted by her father's family. Despite maintaining a close relationship, she never went to her father's house because of his father's partner.

She dated the SIC presenter João Manzarra for several years.

In March 2017, Jessica married photographer Gonçalo Claro in Bali, from whom she separated 8 months later.

In 2018, she began a relationship with Diogo Amaral. On June 8, 2019, in Lisbon, Parque das Nações, she gave birth to a boy, whom she named Oliver Ross de Athayde do Amaral. Jessica documented the entire pregnancy and birth of Oliver in a documentary produced by Vogue Portugal magazine, divided into 8 parts, and titled "Waiting for Oliver". The couple announced their separation in September 2019, but reconciled in 2021.

Filmography

Television

Streaming

Cinema