Priyanka Chopra is reflecting on the day her daughter Malti arrived prematurely into the world and her time in hospital that followed.
Priyanka and her husband Nick Jonas welcomed Malti into the world via surrogate in January 2022.
The tot had to spend 110 days in the NICU with her parents by her side as she arrived early.
Speaking to Today about the day the couple found out their baby girl was arriving prematurely, Priyanka revealed what her husband said to her to make her feel calm.
“I remember he just held me by my shoulders, and I said, ‘Just tell me what to do, because I don’t know what to do’. And he’s like, ‘Just get into the car with me’. And we drove to the hospital”.
“She was born, and from the moment she took her first breath to now, she’s never been without one of us, ever”.
The Citadel actress went on to open up about ‘not being able to feel scared’ because her daughter needed her to be strong.
“I don’t think it was our test. I think it was her test. I realised very, very early that I did not have the luxury to be scared or to be weak, because she was scared and weak. And I had to be her strength as her mom”.
“I needed to make her feel at every given moment that she’s not alone…that we’ve got her”.
Chopra then spoke about bringing Malti home from the hospital for the first time, explaining, “You know your child is alive, because you can see their heartbeat (on the monitor). I couldn’t sleep for days, because now suddenly she was home without a monitor”.
“I used to put my ear on her chest. I would wake up every couple of minutes just to see if she was OK. For weeks, this went on”.
When talking about their daughter’s arrival into the world, Priyanka and Nick shared a message that read, “After 100 plus days in the NICU, our little girl is finally home. Every family’s journey is unique and requires a certain level of faith, and while ours was a challenging few months, what becomes abundantly clear, in retrospect, is how precious and perfect every moment is”.
