Priyanka Chopra may be happily married to Nick Jonas, but she definitely didn’t expect to be when they first met.
The former Quantico actress, 36, opened up about her relationship with Jonas, 26, while speaking at Tina Brown’s 10th Annual Women in the World Summit on Thursday.
Though the pair will have been together for a year next month, Chopra admitted during her panel that she originally didn’t think she would end up marrying the singer and explained why Jonas has surprised her from the start of their romance.
“I’ve known him for two years. I didn’t think that this is what it turned out to be, and that’s maybe that’s my fault, I judged a book by its cover,” she told Brown. “When I actually started dating Nick, he surprised me so much.”
“I call him ‘Old Man Jonas.’ That’s my name for him, ‘OMJ,'” Chopra continued. “He’s such an old soul, extremely smart, so good for me because he grounds me so much. I’m a wild child, I do whatever I want whenever I want and he always supports me.”
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Chopra then went on to describe “one of the first things that struck” her about Jonas during an early date together.
Towards the end of their night out with friends, Chopra said she needed to leave due to a meeting, but continued to drop hints to Jonas in hopes that he would tell her to cancel her other commitment.
“Finally he took me aside and he’s like, ‘Look, I’m not stupid. I know what you’re trying to do, but I will never be the one who will tell you to cancel work because I know how hard you’ve worked to be where you are. So if you could’ve canceled it, you would’ve done it. I’ll take our friends out for dinner, we’ll wait for you, and you finish your meeting and come back,'” she recalled.
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Added Chopra of her husband: “He gave me credit for what I had done, it was just mindblowing for me.”
Chopra was listed as one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in the world in 2017. Aside from her acting career, the Indian superstar is also well-known for producing and her philanthropic work.
She is currently a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and dedicates time to promoting education and women’s rights.
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As fans of the couple know, once Chopra decided to give Jonas a chance, the two fell madly in love and were engaged after just two months of dating. The pair eventually tied the knot in December in Jodhpur, India in a lavish, almost week-long wedding celebration which included a two-day ceremony. They then followed that with a second reception two weeks later in Mumbai.
On their elaborate wedding, Chopra admitted that while it was very special, it also came with a hefty price tag.
“I knew it was going to be three days because Indian weddings do have pre-rituals. Both of us wanted one wedding in each of our religions, so that was two days anyway,” she explained to Brown. “It all happened so fast. We decided to prep this wedding in October, and we got married the first of December.”
“We saw videos, and then the bill,” the actress added. “And we were like, ‘Cool cool, maybe we should have prepared this a little bit more.'”
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Though Jonas is 11 years younger than Chopra, a source close to the couple previously told PEOPLE that the age difference was part of the reason the actress found him so attractive.
“The age difference is not a big deal to them whatsoever,” the source said. “Nick loves dating older women, and if anything it makes Priyanka even more attractive to him.”
And while some may have been surprised that the former Disney star was settling down in his 20’s, the source echoed Chopra’s remarks from Thursday and said he has “always been very mature for his age” and is “an old soul.”
“Nick has been obsessed with Priyanka since they started dating,” the source added of the couple, who first began dating over Memorial Day weekend in 2018. “He obviously thinks she’s beautiful, but he’s also drawn to her intelligence. “She has this charisma and energy that draws you to her, and she’s fit in so well with his friends and family.”
