Priyanka Chopra covers the February issue of British Vogue. She’s promoting various movies – Love Again and Citadel – but she mostly talks about her family. Priyanka and Nick Jonas welcomed daughter Malti Marie last year via surrogacy. Malti was born premature, and Nick and Priyanka basically took all of 2022 off to practically live at the NICU for three months before they could bring Malti home. The interview takes place at Priyanka and Nick’s home, where her mom is staying and Nick’s parents have been in and out, all helping with the baby. Priyanka’s priorities shifted overnight and she’s only ready to talk about it now. Some highlights from British Vogue:
Taking time off to be a mom: “It’s been 20 years of hustling and working at breakneck speed. I’ve always been like, ‘What’s the next thing?’ But now I feel I have a centre, a sense of calm, because every decision ends up being about her.”
She’s always got her eyes on Malti: “I have, like, seven cameras in her room. There’s really nothing more satisfying than seeing her face as soon as her eyes open.”
The nasty comments about why she & Nick used a surrogate: “I’ve developed a tough hide when people talk about me. But it’s so painful when they talk about my daughter. I’m like, ‘Keep her out of it.’ I know what it felt like to hold her little hands when they were trying to find her veins. So no, she’s not going to be gossip. I’ve been really protective of this chapter of my life with my daughter. Because it’s not about my life only. It’s hers too.”
Malti was born very premature: “I was in the OR [operating room] when she came out. She was so small, smaller than my hand. I saw what the intensive-care nurses do. They do God’s work. Nick and I were both standing there as they intubated her. I don’t know how they even found what they needed [in her tiny body] to intubate her.”
For the first three months, Malti lived at the NICU at two different hospitals: “We spent every single day with her on my chest, on my husband’s chest. I didn’t know if she would make it or not.”
What led them to surrogacy: “I had medical complications… [so] this was a necessary step, and I’m so grateful I was in a position where I could do this. Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months.” But for the internet trolls who made a sport of theorising why the couple enlisted a surrogate, Chopra Jonas’s tone takes on an edge. “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve been through. And just because I don’t want to make my medical history, or my daughter’s, public doesn’t give you the right to make up whatever the reasons were.”
Their two-month courtship before marriage: “We didn’t know each other’s careers before we met. Like, didn’t know them well. So we do a show and tell once in a while and share random things that we’ve done to show the other person what we were like when we were younger.”
Nick is the mature one: “He’s a wise man beyond his years. I get affirmations from him all the time, to remind me of my value when I forget or when I get insecure. He just sees through the fog for me. He sees the best in people.”
She wants to work more behind the camera, producing & developing: “Hopefully I’ll open doors for the next generation of girls. Hopefully we’ll see more Indian or South Asian actors in Hollywood. I want to commemorate the success and achievements of South Asians outside of India, in the international sphere, because we deserve that position. Why shouldn’t we be on the main stage?”
[From British Vogue]
Nick appears throughout the interview and what I kept thinking was how gentle and caring they seem with each other. Going through the ordeal with Malti’s premature birth was their make-or-break moment and their daughter really seems to have brought them closer together. They’re checking in with each other throughout the day, they’re obsessed with Malti and everything seems very solid. I’m happy for them – I didn’t think this would work long-term, but they’ve been through hell (not knowing if their daughter would survive) and it made them stronger. And yes, people should mind their business about why they used a surrogate.
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Cover & IG courtesy of British Vogue.
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