The Tragic Truth About Priyanka Chopra

In a lot of ways, Priyanka Chopra leads an enviable life. Today, she's one of the biggest stars, not just in Hollywood but in Bollywood as well, and married to one of the most sought-after men in entertainment. Her ascent to fame was unlike any other, too — it all started when she won Miss World back in 2000. The world immediately took notice of her beauty and talent, paving the way for a fruitful career in acting.

But according to Chopra herself, her life is anything but flawless. "My life was an epitome of imperfection. I'm not perfect like Aishwarya Rai, beautiful, stunning," she told Associated Press (via People). "I was a gawky kid, had low self-esteem, came from a modest middle-class background, had white marks on my legs, but only thing I knew was to work hard and learn. I didn't know how to act or win a beauty pageant," she said, noting that the only thing she had going for her was her tenacity, and boy did she hustle to get to where she is today. "But I was damn hard working. Today, my legs sell 12 brands."

From the outside looking in, it appears as though Chopra's life is void of any hardships, but it couldn't be further from the truth. From experiencing racism as a child to almost quitting acting due to a botched surgery, the "Citadel" actor has weathered her fair share of struggles over the years.

During her teens, Priyanka Chopra jetted off to the U.S. to study, hopping from Iowa to New York before finally settling in Massachusetts with her aunt and uncle. While she had the quintessential high school experience, participating in theater productions and pep rallies, what she hadn't expected was that she would fall victim to bullying because she was deemed as different. 

Speaking with Complex, Chopra recalled the time that she had to deal with a "supremely racist" bully who would constantly taunt her. '"Brownie, go back to your country, you smell of curry,' or 'Do you smell curry coming?'" the bully would say. "You know when you're a kid, and you're made to feel bad about where your roots are, or what you look like? You don't understand it, you just feel bad about who you are." 

The "Quantico" star wrote about her tragic experience in her memoir, "Unfinished," admitting that it took a serious hit on her self-esteem. "My confidence was stripped. I've always considered myself a confident person, but I was very unsure of where I stood, of who I was," she penned. Feeling incredibly defeated, she made the difficult decision to return to India to complete her studies.

In 2001, fresh off her Miss World win, Priyanka Chopra geared up for the launch of her acting career with several projects booked, including three films. But even before she could star in them, she had to deal with a medical emergency — the beauty queen-turned-actor had to undergo surgery to remove a nasal polyp that was causing breathing difficulties. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a routine procedure took an unexpected turn, leaving her looking drastically different.

"While shaving off the polyp, the doctor also accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed," Chopra detailed in her book. "My original nose was gone. My face looked completely different. I wasn't me anymore." As a result, Chopra was kicked off the films she had initially been booked for, with the media unkindly branding her with the nickname "Plastic Chopra."

In an appearance on the "Howard Stern Show," she revealed that she had spiraled at the time, thinking it would be her ultimate downfall. "It was a dark phase," she recalled. "This thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression." Eventually, her father, who was a surgeon himself, urged her to elect corrective surgery. "I was terrified of that, but he was like, 'I will be in the room with you,'" she continued. "He held my hands through it and helped me build back my confidence."

Priyanka Chopra enjoyed mainstream success in Bollywood, eventually becoming one of the industry's highest-paid female actors. But despite her overwhelming success, she ultimately had to leave it all behind due to dirty politics that hindered her from securing more roles.

"I was being pushed into a corner in the industry," she said in Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast. "I had beef with people, and again, I'm not good at playing the game. I was kind of just tired of the politics." Feeling pressured by the ticking clock and the lack of familial backing prevalent in Bollywood, she had to take a step back and reconsider her options. "I'm not a nepo baby. I didn't have the kind of support that exists in a big way in Bollywood movies," she continued. "There are multigenerational actors that get in and get multiple opportunities versus the ones that come from outside. You don't have your uncle making a new movie for you just because the last one tanked."

Adding to her struggle was the glaring pay gap, with Chopra finding herself being compensated significantly less than her male co-stars despite having the same level of star power, if not more. "I've never had pay parity in Bollywood. I would get paid about 10% of the salary of my male co-actor", she told BBC 100 Women. "It [the pay gap] is large, substantially large. And so many women still deal with that. I'm sure I will too if I worked with a male co-actor now in Bollywood."

Priyanka Chopra shared an exceptionally tight bond with her father, Ashok Chopra, telling Glamour that out of everyone in the world, he was her biggest fan. "My dad was my biggest cheerleader. Any awards show, he would be my date. Every time I won anything, he'd be like, 'Yeah!' as if he'd won," she said. "I was like, 'Dad, just turn it down by 10.' He enjoyed my achievements more than I did."

Sadly, he passed away in 2013 due to illness, leaving Chopra inconsolable. Despite her grief, she had to power through as she was filming the movie "Mary Kom," in which she had to play a female boxer. "I channeled all my grief into this movie. And that's what drove me. It pushed me," she said at the Toronto Film Festival, only to return home night after night to grieve. "Every night I would go back home and my mom would say just get into the bathtub and I cried."

While things eventually got easier for Chopra, she confessed that she likely would never get over the loss of her father, no matter how much time had passed. "One thing that helped me navigate that grief was understanding that you never overcome it," she told Us Weekly (via Yahoo! News). "You just kind of have to learn to keep it in your backpack."

While receiving criticism is part and parcel of being a public figure, Priyanka Chopra found herself on the receiving end of much ridicule for choosing to marry someone ten years her junior: Nick Jonas. She married the singer in 2018 after a whirlwind romance, triggering an ongoing discourse on age differences. The fact that she's much older than him wasn't lost on her, of course, which is why she even entertained the thought of jumping ship in the beginning before things got serious.

"I didn't want to engage much at that time," she told Dax Shepard of their first conversation. "I was 35, and Nick was 25. I really put a stop on it in a way because I judged a book by the cover." It wasn't until she discovered that Jonas was far more mature for his age that she considered dating him for real. "I was ready to get serious and not realizing that my husband is a 70-year-old man stuck in a 30-year-old's body."

Chopra eventually learned how to turn a blind eye to the insults flung at her about the age difference, realizing that she probably wouldn't get as much scrutiny if she had been a man." People gave us a lot of s**t about that and still do," she shared with InStyle. "I find it really amazing when you flip it and the guy is older, no one cares and actually people like it."