Priyanka Chopra Jonas: 'Quarantine has been truly humbling'

The Indian actress said she realises 'how much of a privileged position' she is in

Priyanka Chopra Jonas spent the lockdown period at her home in Los Angeles with her dog, right, and her husband Nick Jonas. Instagram

"Quarantine for me has been truly humbling," Priyanka Chopra Jonas said on a Facebook livestream by Variety on Friday morning, UAE time.

"I come from India, and reading reports about how people are dying of hunger and not of Covid makes me realise how much of a privileged position I have just because I have a home that I can quarantine in," the Indian actress who now lives in the US said.

"I have the ability to stay with my family, my husband," she added of her pop star partner Joe Jonas.

Chopra Jonas was speaking as part of the Variety's Power of Women: Frontline Heroes event, hosted by Robin Roberts. The actress, 37, was on the video to introduce an ER nurse in America who has sacrificed time with her family to administer care.

The nurse that was honoured 

"Being a child of two doctors, I am truly in awe of everyone on the front line who has stepped up to take care of us," Chopra Jonas said. "So let me tell you the story of nurse Emily Langlois from Bowling Green, Kentucky. She has given up everything so that she can work on the front line."

The ER nurse in Kentucky gave birth to her daughter in December, and the Covid-19 pandemic hit her state one month after she'd come back from maternity leave.

"To be a nurse in the ER during the Covid-19 pandemic is exhausting and scary," Langlois said of her experience. "You are constantly concerned about correctly putting on and taking off your protective gear. It's frightening.

"I worry about bringing home this virus to my husband and two children," she explained, going on to detail that her husband and daughters went across state lines to live with extended family to decrease the risk of contracting the virus.

"As a mother, that is very hard to deal with," Langlois said on the video, holding back tears. "I don't get to see the milestones and be with them every day... I have no idea when I will get to live with my family again."

Chopra Jonas on using platform for good

In March this year, Chopra Jonas visited the UAE to speak at the Sharjah Communication Forum about how those with a platform had a responsibility to use their voice to help those without one.

On this, she talked about travelling to Jordan with Unicef. "I visited the refugees, and when I travel to places like that and when I write individual stories of children and families, there is so much media coverage that comes to that. It gives the story a life.

"We are a conduit for people who don’t have a voice. That’s where the responsibility of social media influencers come in."

Here she is in Ethiopia as part of her role as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador: