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?”
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.
Cover & IG courtesy of British Vogue.
I hope their baby daughter will be okay. There are many reasons why a couple would choose to use surrogacy and they would owe no one an explanation for doing so. My only concern would be with the surrogate giving birth to a premature baby. Let’s say that if it happens to that surrogate again then she should not be allowed to be a surrogate, just saying. My best wishes for Nick, Priyanka and Malti.
My first child was 11 days late and my second a month early. It’s not necessarily the surrogate.
We don’t know the medical details. And pregnancies in even the healthiest, most conscientious women can go sideways for no discernable reason. I’m sure the premature birth was very traumatic for the surrogate too — and she may not want to do it again!
I think it was very appropriate for Priyanka to go out of her way to speak highly of their surrogate. They are clearly not placing blame on her.
I’m so happy for them, little Malti is tooooo cute! She looks just like Kevin’s youngest daughter.
I’m so tired of the term internet trolls. It others them, makes these disgusting vile human beings seem like they aren’t what they are.
Three months premature is…quite a lot. Lungs not developed fully, serious risks all around. I’m glad the baby made it out of NICU and seems to be thriving. Nothing but blessings to this family.
I’m a lil’ bit disappointed for her.
she seemed a very ambitions woman, and her hollywood try didn’t deliver (yet ?).
It is very hard for already established non white foreign actresses to make it in the us in the long term. And bollywood won’t have her back as she s supposed to ne blacklisted there.
You talk as if her career is over. She took a year off and now she’s back with new projects.
Seriously? She’s promoting a new movie and her series in this article alone.
Citadel could be huge. It’s a Russo brothers project. It’s going to almost be like global Law & Order. It’s a show about spies, and they’ll have the main show, and they’ll tie into other local shows (set in Italian Alps, India, Spain and Mexico, etc). So she’s furthering her career globally with this project.
Ummm just two years ago she executive produced and starred in The White Tiger, which was critically acclaimed and a worldwide number 1 movie on Netflix. Pretty sure there are tens of thousands of Hollywood actresses who can only dream of such success.
Excuse me if some of my thoughts was lost in translation, i m french.
i remember when i saw her in her first us TV series, she had big charisma.
Cameras love her.
To me she should have been in big marvel-dc or maverick type blockbusters, or successful auteur films like the ones produced at a24.
Netflix is nice, but her film didn’t get great buzz in my country, i want her in traditional theater movies.
TV is too small for her kind
She had an extremely succesful career in India as a beauty queen, model and actress. Nick Jonas seems to be contented with enjoying life, basking on his fans’ support and working whenever he sees it fit, and I guess she’s there too. She doesn’t seem to be interested as much on courting hollywood hard. Not to mention she went through h*ll and back watching their baby barely grasping to life, and is in a relationship where her SO worships keeps her grounded in terms of self validation. I don’t think she’s as much as blacklisted in India as considered problematic after – rumoredly – having had an affair with SRK. I’d say it’s misoginy, but his wife is a highly influential producer and entrepreneusse; so apparently few people want to get in her wrong side. She deserves to be bigger in US for sure, but maybe that doesn’t sit so isolated in her priority list anymore.
I think their daughter’s name is lovely.
This interview humanized Priyanka for me – not that my opinion should matter in the least to her – but it did. What an ordeal they had to go through with their daughter. I’m thankful the little one made it and that their marriage and partnership seems strong.
I am an old cynic and was always in the camp that she and Jonas had a fake marriage for PR reasons, but everything that happened with their child changed my mind. They seem truly dedicated to one another and their family. I hope that their baby does does not experience any long term effects from the premature arrival.
She and Nick seem solid together. I can’t believe they married so quickly. She is beautiful, and I wish her and her family all the best