Priyanka Chopra is opening up about the terrifying months that followed the birth of her and Nick Jonas’ daughter and their reason for choosing surrogacy.

Nearly a year after their baby, Malti, was born, the actress detailed the moments when her daughter had to be delivered preterm, a full trimester before her due date, in an interview with British Vogue.

“I was in the OR [operating room] when she [her daughter] came out,” she recalls. “She was so small, smaller than my hand. 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.”

After Malti’s birth, the new parents had to go to the neonatal intensive care unit every day for the next three months. “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.”

Then, in May 2022, Jonas took to social media to share that their daughter had finally come home. “On this Mother’s Day we can’t help but reflect on these last few months and the rollercoaster we’ve been on, which we now know, so many people have also experienced,” the singer wrote at the time. “After 100 plus days in the NICU, our little girl is finally home.”

Throughout the journey, the Love Again actress said they preferred to remain private, but regarding their decision for surrogacy, she said, “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. Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months.”

And for those who decided to share their unsolicited opinions on the couple’s decision to go that route, the actress responded, “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.”

Chopra and Jonas married in 2018 in the actress’ home county of India. The pair had two ceremonies over nearly a week, including a traditional Hindu ceremony and a Christian ceremony.

When speaking about her husband, Chopra said he is “a wise man beyond his years.” Following the birth of their daughter, the actress added that she gets “affirmations from him [Jonas] all the time, to remind me of my value when I forget or when I get insecure. He just sees through the fog for me. He sees the best in people.”