Jessica Alba deletes Nancy Kerrigan Halloween costume photos after online backlash

Jessica Alba posted Halloween photos to Instagram on Sunday, November 1, then quietly deleted them — but not before the images had already spread across social media and drawn a wave of criticism. The costume: a white dress, matching tights, ice skates, and a fake blood-stained bandage on her knee, recreating the moment Nancy Kerrigan was attacked in January 1994.

Alba, 45, captioned the since-deleted carousel 'Happy Halloween from Tonya … and Nancy.' Standing beside her was a friend dressed as Kerrigan's rival Tonya Harding in a sparkly maroon ensemble. According to Page Six, that friend was Kelly Sawyer, who held a baseball bat — a reference to the police baton used by Shane Stant, the man hired by Harding's ex-husband to assault Kerrigan ahead of the 1994 Olympic qualifiers.

Alba wore the costume to a celebrity-studded 'Hockey Horror' Halloween party in Los Angeles on October 31, hosted by Vas J Morgan and Michael Braun. Photos shared via Deuxmoi on Instagram showed Alba posing on the ice alongside other guests including Paris Hilton, Machine Gun Kelly, Salma Hayek, Natasha Lyonne, and Paul Wesley, who attended with wife Natalie Kuckenburg dressed as Jason Voorhees.

The backlash was swift in the comments of Alba's post before it was removed. Critics called the costume insensitive to a real victim of a real crime.

Immature. We expect better, Jessica.— Instagram commenter

Why would you want to revisit this traumatic moment that ended people's careers?— Instagram commenter

A third commenter, according to Page Six, drew a parallel to Martha Stewart's Halloween costume choice that same weekend, writing: 'Wow, first Martha and now Jessica. Why are we being nasty this Halloween?'

Not everyone agreed the costume crossed a line. On Reddit, defenders pointed to the decades of cultural distance from the event and the volume of films it has already inspired.

Eh. It's been over 30 years, there's been two feature films and, like, five made for TV movies about it. Seems like a pretty tame joke at this point.— Reddit user

On Instagram, some commenters praised the costumes outright, with one writing 'Brilliant costumes' and others leaving clapping-hand and laughing emojis, according to Us Magazine.

The 1994 attack on Kerrigan was orchestrated by associates of Harding's ex-husband. Kerrigan was struck at the knee with a police baton, forcing her to withdraw from the Olympic qualifiers. Harding, now 55, admitted to overhearing her ex-husband's plan but was never criminally convicted of any involvement. She was subsequently issued a lifetime ban from the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

The timing of the costume carries an added layer: one day before the Halloween party, Harding gave an interview to KOIN 6, an Oregon CBS affiliate, saying she cannot 'walk away' from the sport despite her ban. She is scheduled to skate publicly at Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, Washington, on December 12, at an event called 'Tonya and Friends.'

I just want people to come out and have fun and be able to enjoy a real skating show.— Tonya Harding

The deleted post had also included a photo of Alba's 8-year-old son Hayes in a vampire costume, according to Page Six; that image is also no longer visible on her account. Representatives for Alba had not responded to requests for comment from either Page Six or Us Magazine as of the latest reports.

Why it matters — The episode illustrates how quickly a celebrity Halloween costume can become a referendum on the line between cultural reference and victim mockery — and how social media backlash now shapes what stays public.

Reported by usatoday.com, pagesix.com, instyle.com, usmagazine.com, cosmopolitan.com, rmb.reuters.com