Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas announced the birth of their daughter Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, via surrogacy in January 2022. But she was a premature child and remained in the NICU. In a recent interview, Priyanka opened up on her fear and what she went through at that point in time, with the uncertainty and fear of losing her. She recalled how hard it was on her but eventually she became a tigress through it all and wanted to protect her daughter at all costs. Priyanka opened up about it on Jay Shetty’s podcast, On Purpose, “The whole thing was tough because our journey to Malti was itself rough. I don’t know whether I am ready to talk about it but it was very hard on me, and she is a miracle baby as she was my only hope at that time to be able to have a baby.”
The shock intensified when doctors informed them that Malti would be born at just 27 weeks. “So when we were told that she was coming at 27 weeks, I shut down. I remember sitting in front of our fireplace at our house for at least 9 hours. And for someone who is always so solution-oriented, I didn’t have any thought in my brain. Nick was somewhere and he came back and he just grabbed me and we drove to the hospital.”Recalling the day of Malti’s birth, Priyanka said the circumstances were overwhelming, compounded by the pandemic. “It was Covid times and just the situation where she was born was so much duress for everyone involved. It was just really intense. She was purple. The NICU nurses’ little fingers were too big for her mouth. How they intubated her was… I still see that image. Thankfully everything was fine with our surrogate, so we could focus our energy on Malti. I was just numb. I didn’t know what to do and how to be useful at that moment.”The early days in the NICU left a deep emotional imprint. “We went with her to the NICU. One of us was allowed at a time, and she cried the first time. It was like a cat. That’s all we got. My mom and in-laws flew down, but we were in the hospital. It was such a personally traumatic time.”Adding to the stress was the pressure to make Malti’s birth public before they were emotionally prepared. “I remember it leaked and we got a text saying that her birth is going to be put out by the papers… that if we don’t, they are going to in three hours. So we were kind of forced into announcing her birth. We wanted to hold onto our own narrative of it; we weren’t ready because we didn’t know what would happen with her or how she would be.”Malti spent nearly four months in intensive care, a period during which Priyanka and Nick put everything else on hold. “It was three months, almost 110 days. We stopped everything. We were in the hospital every day. We did shifts so that she could be on our skin.”Following medical guidance, the couple focused on constant skin-to-skin contact and comforting sounds. “Nick would sing to her on his guitar. I used to have this little iPod which played all my mantras, my Mahamrityunjay Mantra, my Gayatri Mantra, my Om Namah Shiv mantra. All of it would play all day inside her crib softly.”The medical challenges were relentless. “She was very, very desired, very coveted and treasured. It was so hard… she had like six blood transfusions.”Looking back on that period, Priyanka Chopra said becoming a mother fundamentally changed how she processed fear and vulnerability. “Once I got out of the shock state I was in, I realised how afraid she must have been. So I didn’t have the privilege of being upset or afraid. I had to show up as her mom and be tough for her.”She also recalled the first time she held her daughter, Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, close to her chest, a moment that left an indelible mark on her. “When she was on my chest for the first time… she was so tiny that her fingers felt like butterflies on me. She was 1 pound and 11 ounces and in that moment I was like, I will go to the ends of the world to protect you.”That instinct soon turned into fierce vigilance. “I became a tigress about everything—from her nutrition to her medication to her transfusions. Nick and I as a team… every little thing about her that made sure she gets to that weight and survives was the only order of business. Everything else took a backseat.”Bringing Malti home was another deeply emotional turning point. “The day we got her back, she was so tiny. We just as a family sat in front of our mandir. That’s the first time I really wept — for grace that she survived.”
