The 'Quantico' star said all the attention she got from it left her feeling 'very vulnerable.'
Priyanka Chopra is addressing the uproar and scrutiny that followed after she dropped her husband, Nick Jonas', last name from her Instagram handle last year, describing the ordeal as "a professional hazard."
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Quantico star addressed the "random Monday in November" when Chopra reverted back to only her first and last name on Instagram, a move that triggered speculation from fans that her marriage was in trouble. But as Chopra tells the fashion magazine for its February cover story, social media is far from being the be-all and end-all. She added that the experience served as a prime example of the microscope celebrities find themselves under in this digital age.
"It's a very vulnerable feeling, actually, that if I post a picture, everything that's behind me in that picture is going to be zoomed in on, and people are going to speculate," Chopra tells the outlet. "It's just a professional hazard ... Because of the noise of our social media, because of the prevalence that it has in our lives, I think it seems a lot larger than it is. I think that we give it a lot more credence in real life, and I don't think it needs that."
It didn't take long for Chopra to put the rocky marriage rumors to rest, after leaving a flirty comment on one of Jonas' workout videos. She wrote, "Damn! I just died in your arms ..." followed by a couple of heart emojis.
The Bollywood star is no stranger to public scrutiny, including accusations in a since-deleted article by New York Magazine's The Cut that she was a "global scam artist" who married Jonas to advance her career. More recently, Chopra -- along with fellow judges Julianne Hough and Usher -- was on the receiving end of criticism for her role in the competition series The Activist, which came under fire for its format that saw activists competing against one another in an effort to spotlight their causes. At the time, Chopra admitted the show got it wrong and apologized for her participation. Chopra now tells Vanity Fair that the whole situation made her sad.
"It's really tragic when something like that happens because that is never the intention," she told the outlet. "It makes me sad because I try to live my life as a good person every day, doing the best I can, just like everyone else. And it would just be nice to be seen for that sometimes."
Despite the ups and downs, Jonas, who recently celebrated his third wedding anniversary with Chopra, told Vanity Fair he's never seen his wife get overwhelmed by the pressures of fame.
"We both know that public life is something that comes with what we do,” Jonas said. "But we’ve set real boundaries around our personal lives, our privacy, and worked really hard to create that little safe haven for ourselves with our friends and family."
Chopra also told the outlet she's excited about the future, which includes children.
"They're a big part of our desire for the future," she said. "By God's grace, when it happens, it happens."
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