Priyanka Chopra Reacts to Internet Users Accusing Her of "Outsourcing" Her Pregnancy

Hot off Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’s daughter Malti Marie’s first birthday celebration earlier this month, Chopra is talking in detail about the baby’s arrival and first months in the NICU.

Chopra and Jonas welcomed their daughter via surrogate last January; she was premature, born a full trimester before her due date.

"I was in the OR [operating room] when she came out. She was so small, smaller than my hand," Chopra told British Vogue. "I saw what the intensive-care nurses do. They do God's work. Nick and I were both standing there as they intubated her. I don't know how they even found what they needed [in her tiny body] to intubate her."

Malti spent three months in the NICU, with Jonas and Chopra visiting daily. "We spent every single day with her on my chest, on my husband's chest," Chopra said. "I didn't know if she would make it or not."

In the interview, Chopra also addressed her choice to use a surrogate, explaining that it was due to health issues she'd rather not share publicly. "I had medical complications, [so] this was a necessary step, and I'm so grateful I was in a position where I could do this," she said. "Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months."

Upon learning that she used a surrogate, Internet commenters began accusing her of "outsourcing" her pregnancy, "renting" a womb out of vanity, and acquiring a "ready-made baby." Some implied that her not being pregnant with her child meant she and the baby wouldn’t have the same attachment to each other.

"I’ve developed a tough hide when people talk about me. But it’s so painful when they talk about my daughter. I’m like, ‘Keep her out of it.’ I know what it felt like to hold her little hands when they were trying to find her veins. So no, she’s not going to be gossip." Chopra told the magazine. "I’ve been really protective of this chapter of my life with my daughter. Because it’s not about my life only. It’s hers too."

Speaking to commenters on the Internet who have been inventing their own theories about her personal choices, Chopra said, "You don't know me. You don't know what I've been through. And just because I don't want to make my medical history, or my daughter's, public doesn't give you the right to make up whatever the reasons were."

Malti luckily pulled through and has been home with her parents since last spring. The couple publicly revealed that Malti had been in the NICU in a Mother's Day post on Instagram.

Though Chopra and Jonas haven't shown Malti's face publicly, the actress did divulge who their baby girl resembles most. "Most people say she looks like Nick. I don't believe it," she said with a laugh.

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