Nick Jonas is remembering the “very intense” way his 4-year-old daughter, Malti Marie, was born.
“She came to the world under, sort of, very intense circumstances,” Jonas, 33, said on the Wednesday, February 4, episode of the “On Purpose” podcast with Jay Shetty. “We were expecting her to arrive in April of the year she was born, and we get a call that it’s going to be sooner.”
Jonas and his wife, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, welcomed their daughter in January 2022 via surrogate.
“We basically, you know, went into action and she was born via surrogate,” Jonas recalled. “We got to the hospital, and she came out. She was 1 pound, 11 ounces and purple basically.”
After Malti’s premature birth, she spent nearly 100 days in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
“These angels at the NICU, kind of, resuscitated her in that moment and got her taken care of really quickly and intubated [her] and everything else,” the Jonas Brothers singer said. “Because it was COVID times, my wife and I would basically do 12-hour shifts at the hospital for three and a half months. I could still, sort of, smell it.”
Jonas and Chopra Jonas, 43, would split time at the hospital, watching Malti’s progress.
“It’s a tough reality check,” he said. “Just driving there and back each day and seeing each other, sort of, as passing ships was a crazy thing. I’ll just say this about the NICU nurses, they are truly angels.”
With the nursing staff’s support, Malti was eventually discharged from the NICU in May 2022.
“[Malti] fought every day for three and a half months, and slowly started to gain some weight,” Jonas said. “After six blood transfusions, she was doing great and we got to take her home after three and a half months.”
According to Jonas, his daughter already knows “how she entered the world” and understands “the first chapter of her life.”
“Every day is a gift, and you can actually feel it on her in the way that she behaves and how exciting everything is,” he said. “I don’t know how much she remembers, probably nothing, but spiritually, I believe there’s gratitude in her and she’s incredible.”
Malti’s NICU stay also impacted Jonas and Chopra Jonas’ marriage.
“We had a lot of tough conversations, day in, day out, about caring for her,” Jonas noted. “[We were] trying to care for each other and for her, and focusing on not getting overwhelmed. It can all just feel so big and parenthood, in general, is a lot of everybody especially in those early stages of your kids’ life. This just became about staying emotionally tight and being there for each other. … [It was] a lot of give and take from both of us.”
Jonas further praised his wife as a “brilliant woman with a ton of heart and perspective” throughout Malti’s birth journey.
“The way in which she handled it was so inspiring to me,” Jonas said. “[She allowed] for those days to be tough but to be tougher for our little girl was the focus. The thing that helped us the most was being patient with each other. It is hard when you’re feeling emotional to access that logical brain to say, ‘We need to be patient. We need to meet your person where they are in that moment.’ That goes both ways, and so being patient with your partner is crucial.”
As for Malti, Jonas acknowledged that his daughter is “no longer 1 pound, 11 ounces” and is a “beautiful, healthy little 4-year-old girl.”
