The one-year-old daughter of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas has a name that holds significant family meaning. Priyanka, who is recognized for her part in Citadel, revealed to Hoda Kotb from Today that her daughter, Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, was named after her grandparents from both sides of the family. According to the cover star, “Malti” is her mother Dr. Madhu Chopra’s middle name, while “Marie” is the middle name of Nick’s mother, Denise Jonas.
The celebrity couple revealed the name of their first child more than three months after her birth in 2022. In a joint Instagram post, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas confirmed that they had welcomed their baby girl via surrogate and asked for privacy as they adjusted to their new roles as parents. Their daughter, Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, was born prematurely in January 2022 and spent 110 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Priyanka explained to Hoda that it was not their test but their daughter’s test, and she realized early on that she couldn’t afford to be scared or weak because her daughter was scared and weak. As a mother, she had to be strong for her and make her feel supported and not alone during every moment of her life.
In the NICU, Priyanka shared that it was comforting to see her child’s heartbeat on the monitor, as it reassured her that her daughter was alive. However, after being discharged from the hospital, Priyanka struggled to sleep and constantly checked on her daughter’s well-being. “I couldn’t sleep for days because suddenly she was home without a monitor,” she revealed. “I used to put my ear on her chest and wake up every few minutes to make sure she was okay. This went on for weeks.”
Nick and Priyanka have consistently honored their families, and Malti’s name is one such example. Their extravagant three-day wedding in India in 2018 was a perfect blend of cultural customs from both the bride and groom’s sides.
Earlier this year, Priyanka and Nick took their daughter Malti on her first trip to India. The family visited a Hindu temple in Mumbai to seek blessings, which Priyanka shared on Instagram. In her interview with Hoda, Priyanka mentioned that Malti has started exploring traditional Indian cuisine and tried spicy food for the first time. The toddler’s reaction was enthusiastic, as Priyanka described: “She’s eating it with both hands, as if she’s eating ice cream!”
In a previous interview on Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast, Priyanka disclosed that she had her eggs frozen when she was in her early 30s, as a backup plan in case she decided to have children in the future.
She said, “I did it in my early 30s because I wanted to continue on an ambitious path to achieve my goals. I wanted to reach a certain point in my career, and I hadn’t met the person I wanted to have children with or didn’t see that happening. That was anxiety-inducing.” She went on to say, “I was 35 years old, and my mom, who is an OB-GYN, advised me to ‘just do it’ before I turned 36.”
