Priyanka Chopra Jonas leaned on her husband Nick Jonas amid their daughter Malti’s “harrowing” birth.
Malti was born through surrogacy in Jan. 2022, then hospitalized in the NICU for 110 days, an out-of-body time for the new family.
Nick kept their family strong in those delicate days, Priyanka told Hoda Kotb for TODAY’s digital cover story.
The “Citadel” star was thankful for Nick’s steady presence when told their daughter would come early.
“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,'” said Priyanka. “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 couple took turns watching over and holding Malti in the NICU.
“I don’t think it was our test. I think it was her test,” Priyanka said about her daughter. “I realized 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.”
The family felt more vulnerable once Malti was discharged from the hospital and brought home.
In the NICU, Priyanka said, “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.”
The family has found its beat.
“Life is beautiful,” Nick told TODAY in May 2022 of Malti. “She’s a gift and we’re just so blessed that she’s back.”
Malti recently visited India and in January 2023, she witnessed the Jonas Brothers (her dad and his brothers Kevin and Joe Jonas) receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
And the little girl is taking after her beautiful mama every day.
Additional reporting from the TODAY digital cover story on Priyanka Chopra Jonas, written by Kavita Varma-White.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
