Jensen Ackles said on Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” podcast this week that Jessica Alba was “horrible” to work with when filming “Dark Angel.” During the show’s second season, Ackles became a series regular and admitted to being “picked on” by Alba on a regular basis. The actor emphasized that there’s nothing but love between the two and said, “I’ve told her this to her face” about how difficult it was to work together.

“I love Jess, which I know kind of contradicts what I just said,” Ackles said, “which I know kind of contradicts what I just said. She was under an immense amount of pressure on that show. She was young, she was in a relationship with one of the guys [co-star Michael Weatherly], and that was rocky and causing some undue stress, I believe, on set, who wasn’t really there on Season 1. I was the new kid on the block, and I got picked on by the lead.”

But he said it caused “the worst kind of bickering a brother and sister could do,” stating: “She had it out for me.”

“She just was like, ‘Oh, here’s the pretty boy that network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need.’”  Jensen claimed she shouted it in front of the whole team.

Ackles and Alba on “Dark Angel.” Fox Network

As a result, rather than try to make amends, Ackles opted to retaliate by being cruel.

“Very quickly I was like ‘What the f—? What did I do?’ So very quickly I was just like, ‘Well, fire with fire,’” he explained. “So I just was like ‘Oh, looks like we’re getting Bitch Alba today! Everybody hang onto your nuts!’”

With the idea of “I’ll be a dick to him and he’ll be a dick to me and that’s how we’ll role,” Ackles claimed he battled “fire with fire” and the two earned mutual respect for one other over time. “But we quarrelled,” the actor said. “We bickered like brother and sister.”

Despite the sibling-style rivalry, Ackles claimed their connection “did build some mutual respect” and that they spent time together off set, adding that Alba even made sure she was there for him through a particularly trying personal day.

“My grandfather died while I was shooting and she literally just walked into my trailer and held me for half an hour,” he recalled. “So it was that kind of a relationship. And again, if she walked in [now] we’d be all hugs. But she didn’t make it easy on me on set.”

“I know [that] kind of contradicts what I just said,” he remarked, adding that he now “loves” Alba.

Alba, who was 19 at the time, was dating her co-star Michael Weatherley, who was 13 years her senior.