Priyanka Chopra has had a polarizing reputation since she entered Hollywood in 2014. The actress - who had her American film debut in 2017's Baywatch - struggled to with proving herself, starting out after her Bollywood "beef."
"When I went to the US and started working, it was very hard for people to take me seriously," she told NDTV in 2021. "It was difficult to convince people that I can play pivotal parts and lead roles."
She also noted: "I didn't carry my stardom that I had built in India. I walked into every room as a new actor and I demanded opportunities." In 2021, she had a big moment being cast in The Matrix Resurrections.
"For people to develop confidence in you takes time," she said of her milestone at that time. "I have been working for almost seven years (in Hollywood). It's very exciting to be trusted with a movie like The Matrix Resurrections."
Unfortunately, despite her hard work and fight for equal pay, the Miss World 2000 has been slammed by critics. Recently, a former pageant competitor accused her win of being "rigged" due to favoritism. Here's what both of them have said about that time.
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In 2019, Chopra told Vogue that she didn't dream of becoming a beauty queen. "I wanted to be an engineer," she shared. However, she quickly realized that it wasn't for her. "Looking back now, I should have seen the signs that girl, you can't pass a reflective surface without looking at yourself," she continued. "You're not going to be an engineer."
Still, it was her mother who signed her up for Miss India by sending a set of her glossy photos which she didn't think were any good. "[My mother] thought those soft-focus pictures were real cute," she said, laughing. "They weren't." On May 1, 2023, she told Howard Stern that she got a call from Miss India when she was at "home eating like meals between my two classes."
She was then asked to go to Delhi and to "bring a bathing suit, don't wear makeup, and bring heels." Not knowing that her parents had signed her up for the competition, she quickly informed her mom about the news, saying: "Mom, look how famous I am! They know me!"
At 18, Chopra went on to represent India in Miss World 2000. She ended up winning the crown, which she said was a matter of "life and death" back then. "There's nothing else that mattered," she said of her journey.
"[I] was like an athlete. For me, I was like now that I'm here, I can't lose it. I'm too close. I didn't aim for this but now that I'm here, I see it. I see the finish line."
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In November 2022, Leilani McConne AKA Leilani of Barbados on YouTube claimed on her channel that Chopra's Miss World win was "rigged" like the Miss USA 2022 pageant which favored now-reigning Miss Universe, R'Bonney Gabriel of Texas. McConne spilled that there was a conflict of interest between Gabriel and the event's sponsor.
She then likened her experience to the complaints about the recent competition, saying that she "literally went through the same thing at Miss World. Me, I went through that." She cited the favoritism towards the Quantico alum who was "not nice" and "unlikeable" during the competition.
"So, I was Miss Barbados and I went to Miss World, and the year I went, Miss India won," McConne recalled. "Mind you, Miss India had won the previous year. The sponsor was also Zee TV, an Indian cable station. They sponsored the entire Miss World. Our sashes had Zee TV, and then our country."
She also recalled that despite not being allowed to wear sarongs with their one-piece swimwear, Chopra got to wear one during a photographed engagement. "Priyanka Chopra was the only person who was allowed to keep her sarong on," she said. "Apparently, she was using some skin tone cream to even out her skin tone, and it was still splotchy."
McConne clarified that she was "not saying that it was a bleaching cream, it was a skin tone cream. And it didn't work, so she didn't want to remove her sarong. So, during the actual judgment, she's literally in a dress." the YouTuber then asked her viewers: "If you're a contestant in a pageant and somebody favors you, what will you do about it? Why wouldn't you go along with it?"
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As of this writing, Chopra is yet to address the "rigged" Miss World win claims. But in her recent appearance on the Jennifer Hudson Show, she candidly said that her husband Nick Jonas watched her get that crown when he was seven years old.
"When my mother-in-law told me that story, I was like 'I don't know.,'" she said. "When I had just turned 18, I won the Miss World pageant. This was in London."
She continued: "This was November and I turned 18 in July. A complete child, and I had no idea what I was doing or what this world entailed, didn't have a lot of practice. Apparently, my mother-in-law was like, 'I remember watching you when you won!' I was in London, this is 2000. They were in Texas. I was like, 'There's no way.'"
There has been some controversy about Chopra and Jonas' 10-year age gap which the former poked fun of during the Jonas Brothers roast. "I find it really amazing when you flip it and the guy is older, no one cares and actually people like it," she quipped.
"Nick and I have a 10 year age-gap, we do, and there are many 90 pop culture references which he doesn't understand and I teach him, which is fine because we teach each other things. He showed me how to use TikTok for example. And I showed him what a successful acting career looks like."