‘I used to play Mahamrityunjay mantra’: Priyanka Chopra recalls ‘traumatic’ 110-Day NICU battle; reveals being ‘forced’ to announce Malti’s birth

When Priyanka learned about Malti’s premature birth

She recalled the moment they learned Malti would be born extremely premature. “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.”

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110 days of  journey at NICU

Describing the circumstances of Malti’s birth, she added, “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.”

Priyanka spoke about the first days in the NICU and the emotional toll they took. “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.”

Priyanka, Nick were forced to announce Malti’s birth

The couple also faced pressure to make the birth public sooner than they had hoped. “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 remained in the NICU for over three months. “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.”

She described how they followed medical advice to maintain skin-to-skin contact, while Nick sang to their daughter and she played mantras softly in the background. “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.”

Malti’s medical journey was intense. “She was very, very desired, very coveted and treasured. It was so hard… she had like six blood transfusions.”

Priyanka also shared how motherhood shifted her perspective during this time. “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.”

First time Priyanka held Malti against her chest

Recalling the first time she held Malti against her chest, she said, “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.”

She described becoming fiercely protective: “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.”

When Malti came home

When Malti finally came home, it was an emotional milestone. “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.”

Looking back, Priyanka reflected on her decision to become a mother later in life. “In retrospect, I guess my choice to have kids at a later stage contributed to this being a really tough journey for me. But if I had done it earlier, it would have been the wrong time, it would not have been her. .”

She added, “My biggest flex is I am living this life with the right guy, with the right father for this incredible baby that we have. That was meant to be. I feel really blessed on the other side of it but it couldn’t have been any other way.”
Priyanka and Nick welcomed Malti via surrogacy in January 2022. The couple later revealed that their daughter spent over 100 days in the NICU before finally coming home.’

When Nick spoke about Malti’s birth

Nick had also earlier spoken about the tough phase on Jay Shetty’s podcast.  Nick got teary-eyed as he recalled that Malti Marie had to remain in the hospital for over three months after her premature birth and underwent six blood transfusions. He described Priyanka as “brilliant” for handling the situation while staying strong for their daughter.