Priyanka Chopra opened up about her chaotic relationship before Nick Jonas

She didn't have an easy time

Nick Jonas (L) and Priyanka Chopra attend the "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2017 in New York City
(Image credit: Photo by Mike Coppola / Getty)

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas got engaged just months after they went on their first date, but Priyanka wants to set the record straight: they didn't meet on the day of their first date, but two years prior.

Before the two started dating, they were texting a little bit, and they even attended the Met Gala together, but the Baywatch actress wasn't convinced that she and Nick wanted the same things out of a relationship — especially considering their 10-year age gap.

"When Nick texted me in '16 and slid into my DMs and we started chatting, I was at the end of my last long relationship before Nick, so I didn't want to engage as much at that time," Priyanka told Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the Armchair Expert podcast.

"I was also, like, 35. Nick was 25. I really put a stop on it in a way because I judged the book by the cover. I was like, I wanna settle down. I've been there, done the fun dating thing."

Sadly, Priyanka admitted that her relationships before her husband weren't the healthiest.

"I was in a tumultuous relationship at that time — this is '16 — and we had common friends who, like, didn't want me to be in my relationship, and were like: 'Oh, [Nick is] single too. He's really not with that girl but he is.' It was complicated on both our ends," she said.

Dax asked Priyanka what her dating life was like before she started going out with Nick and she told him: "I was in long, long relationships — six years, five years, average — but back to back to back to back."

Priyanka also said that she didn't pick the best people in the past. "I kept making the same mistakes," she said. "I was with similar guys ... a little bit narcissistic. I just needed to figure out what about me evoked that, like why did I attract this?"

All's well that ends well: Priyanka and Nick tied the knot in December 2018, and welcomed their first daughter, Malti Marie, in 2022.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.