The 'Citadel' actress remembers being unable to function properly due to deep fears as she and husband Nick Jonas were waiting for the premature arrival of their baby.
- Apr 28, 2023
AceShowbiz - Priyanka Chopra Jonas broke down when she heard her baby would be born prematurely. The "Citadel" actress leaned on the strength of her husband Nick Jonas when they were preparing to welcome Malti Marie - who was carried by a surrogate - into the world some time before her due date because she didn't "know what to do."
"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," she said to Hoda Kotb for Today.com.
But Priyanka quickly realised she didn't have the "luxury" to feel afraid because she had to be there for her daughter. She added, "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."
After 110 days in hospital, Malti was finally allowed home with her parents, but the 40-year-old star admitted she "couldn't sleep" for some time because she was terrified the tot's health would decline and she wouldn't realise as there was no longer any specialist equipment around.
She said, "[In the NICU] 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."
