Priyanka Chopra And Nick Jonas Were Forced To Announce Malti's Premature Birth: "I Remember It Leaked"

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra are parents to daughter Malti Marie Jonas. Born via surrogate in January 2022, Malti was premature and spent over 100 days in the NICU before going home. In a recent interview, Priyanka Chopra recalled the most harrowing time of her life and how she and Nick Jonas coped while their daughter was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) right after her birth.

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• On Jay Shetty's podcast, Priyanka Chopra said, "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 (makes a sound like a kitten). That's all we got. My mum and in-laws flew down, but we were in the hospital. It was such a personally traumatic time."
• She continued, "But somehow, because we were in and out of the hospital, I remember it leaked, and we got a text saying that her birth was going to be put out by the papers... that if we didn't, they would 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."
• Speaking about how their entire world revolved around caring for their daughter for the next three months, Priyanka added, "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. There were a lot of people praying for her. She was very, very desired, very coveted, and treasured. It was so hard, her journey to get to this planet."
• Priyanka Chopra And Nick Jonas Got Married In Rajasthan In December 2018

When Nick Jonas Spoke About 12-Hour Shifts After Malti's Premature Birth

Speaking on the Jay Shetty Podcast earlier, Nick revealed that Malti weighed just 1 pound 11 ounces at birth. She required six blood transfusions and weeks of careful monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit before she could go home.

The singer said, "She came into the world under very intense circumstances, which I've never really talked about. We were expecting her to arrive in April, the year she was born. Then we got a call that it was going to be sooner... We got to the hospital and [she came out at] 1 pound 11 ounces, and purple basically."

Nick further revealed how he and Priyanka would each do 12-hour shifts at the hospital while Malti was in the NICU. "It was COVID-19 time, and so my wife and I basically did 12-hour shifts at the hospital for 3.5 months. I can still smell it; there are always visceral things. It was both comforting and frightening to be there every day and to see other families going through a similar situation. She (Malti) fought every day for 3.5 months and slowly started to gain some weight. After six blood transfusions, she was doing great. We got to take her home after 3.5 months," he added.

Jonas expressed deep admiration for Malti's resilience throughout it all. He said, "I feel like she knows how she entered the world and what that first chapter of her life was like, and so every day is a gift, and you can actually feel it in her in the way that she behaves and how exciting everything is."

Priyanka Chopra's Latest Release

Priyanka Chopra's latest release is The Bluff, a Frank E. Flowers directorial that will be released on Prime Video on February 25. The film is set in the late 19th-century Caribbean, where a former pirate must protect her family when her past catches up with her.

The Bluff features Priyanka Chopra as Ercell Bodden, Karl Urban as Captain Connor, Ismael Cruz Cordova as T.H. Bodden, Safia Oakley-Green as Elizabeth Bodden, and Vedanten Naidoo as Isaac. Temuera Morrison, Zack Morris, David Field, Pacharo Mzembe, and Gideon Mzembe are also part of the project.

ALSO READ | The Bluff Review: Priyanka Chopra's Bloody Turn Saves This Pirate Saga From Shipwreck