Nick Jonas Says Daughter Malti Needed to Be Resuscitated, Had 6 Blood Transfusions as He Recalls ‘Intense’ Premature Birth

Nick Jonas is looking back on the day he and Priyanka Chopra Jonas welcomed their daughter, Malti Marie — and the frightening, emotional months that followed.

The singer, 33, appeared on the Wednesday, Feb. 4 episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, where he described Malti’s birth as happening under “very intense circumstances.” The couple, who welcomed their daughter via surrogate in January 2022, had expected her to arrive in April.

“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 said. “So basically, we went into action.”

When they reached the hospital, he recalled how tiny she was at birth.

“We got to the hospital, and she came out. She was 1 pound, 11 ounces, and … purple,” Jonas said.

He credited the NICU team for acting immediately.

“These angels at the NICU resuscitated her in that moment, and got her taken care of really quickly and intubated and everything else,” he added.

Because Malti was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonas said he and Chopra Jonas, 43, spent months at the hospital, rotating long shifts.

“We would basically do 12-hour shifts at the hospital for three and a half months,” he said, describing the experience as both deeply reassuring and deeply scary. Jonas also noted how vivid the memories still feel, including sensory details that have stayed with him, and how being there daily meant witnessing other families facing similar situations.

Over time, he said, Malti steadily gained strength.

He shared that she “fought every day for three and a half months,” gradually putting on weight as she progressed through care. During her NICU stay, he said she received six blood transfusions, and eventually the new parents were able to bring her home after three and a half months.

Now, Jonas says that difficult beginning has shaped the way he views everyday life with his daughter.

“I feel like she knows how she entered the world and what that first chapter of her life was like,” he said. “And so every day is a gift, and you can actually feel it in her in the way that she behaves and how exciting everything is.”

The couple has spoken before about Malti’s earliest days. Chopra Jonas told British Vogue in January 2023 that Malti was delivered a full trimester before her due date and was “smaller than my hand.”

“I was in the OR [operating room] when she came out. She was so small, smaller than my hand,” she said at the time, describing how she watched intensive-care nurses 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.”

“I didn’t know if she would make it or not,” she recalled.

In the years since Malti’s birth, Chopra Jonas has also shared what their quiet family routines look like now — including one tradition they protect each week.

“Sunday morning snuggles in bed,” she said in July 2025. “They have to happen. It’s mandatory.”

For her, those slow moments together matter most. “The biggest luxury in our lives is being able to waste time together or spend time together and just be languid in it and not worry about having to go somewhere.”