Priyanka Chopra Jonas said she fell into a “deep, deep depression” at the beginning of her acting career after doctors botched a routine surgery on her nose, leaving it marred.
“It was a dark phase,” the “Citadel” actress told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show Tuesday, adding that she lost three acting jobs over it.
She said she had gone under the knife to get a simple polyp in her nose removed but “this thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression.”
She wrote in her 2021 memoir “Unfinished,” according to People magazine, “While shaving off the polyp, the doctor also accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed. When it was time to remove the bandages and the condition of my nose was revealed, Mom and I were horrified. My original nose was gone. My face looked completely different. I wasn’t me anymore.”
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Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Tuesday said she fell into a “deep, deep depression” at the beginning of her acting career after doctors botched a routine surgery on her nose, leaving it marred. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
The former Miss World 2000 said she saw a “stranger” every time she looked into the mirror and the media began calling her “Plastic Chopra.”
“It has followed me my entire professional life,” she wrote of the derisive nickname, adding that she kept her surgery debacle private for years because she didn’t want to be pressured into an explanation.
The new mom told Stern she thought her career “was over before it started.”
Chopra had her surgery after she won Miss World in 2000. (Gerry Penny/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite not wanting to leave her house, she said her father, a doctor himself, convinced her to get corrective surgery, promising he’d stay with her during the procedure.
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“I was terrified of that, but he was like, ‘I will be in the room with you.’ He held my hands through it and helped me build back my confidence,” she remembered.
She added that Bollywood director Anil Sharma also supported her when her career was struggling after her surgery.
The actress said she’s become “accustomed” to her new nose. (Gary Miller/WireImage)
“I was supposed to play this lead, and I was shifted to a supporting character. That filmmaker was very kind,” she said. “He, while the tide was against me, said, ‘It will be a small part but give it your all.’ And I did.’”
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Chopra wrote in her book that while it took years for her to accept herself, “I’ve gotten accustomed to this face. Now when I look in the mirror, I am no longer surprised; I’ve made peace with this slightly different me. This is my face. This is my body. I might be flawed, but I am me.”