It messed up my mind: Priyanka Chopra on being criticised for ageing

In the fiercely competitive entertainment industry, most celebrities are victims of body shaming and Priyanka Chopra wasn't spared from it either. The Bollywood actor has often spoken about the struggles she had to face in order to pave her way in the cut-throat industry. 

While previously, she had discussed how she was often stereotyped in Hollywood and body-shamed, the actor recently opened up about being ridiculed for ageing. The former Miss World recently had a tête-à-tête on Victoria’s Secret’s VS Voices podcast. The Bajirao Mastani star, who has been working in the entertainment industry since she was merely 17-years-old, spoke about how she had deemed unrealistic beauty standards to be normal.

Addressing the issue, Priyanka said, “Obviously, being raised in the industry and having such a tight lens on what my shape was, what my figure was or what my measurements were, minutely looking at every part of me, I kind of grew up for a while in my 20s, thinking that was normal. Like most young people, where you think about these unrealistic standards of beauty, which is like, absolutely Photoshopped face, perfect hair. I never used my natural texture for years. I used to always just have blown out hair.”

She added, “I think it was a big journey for me because I grew up in the entertainment world, I learnt everything that was thrown at me at such a fast speed that I just imbibed the headlines in a way. I didn’t have time to delve deep into what it was doing to me, the person, not me, the public figure."

The actor further recalled how she was criticised when she sought solace in food after her father's death. “I think over time when my body started changing and I went through that phase when I was eating my emotions, my body started changing, I reached my 30s, I went through struggle because I used to get online grief from people like, ‘You are looking different, you are ageing’, this and that," she commented. "It messed with my mind at that time. My mind was already in such a dark place and I didn’t have time for it. My relationship with social media changed, my relationship with the internet changed… I incubated myself in a way where I protected myself, I went into my Cancerian self-preservation self and got back into my shell."

Talking about her process of healing, Priyanka said that she gave her body ‘what it needed’, even if it was pizza at 1am. However, the actor thinks she has been the healthiest over the last two years but it came after a ‘really dark phase’ of her life. She talked about becoming a vegetarian recently, and how it has made a positive difference in her life. “I think it’s a phase. Every one of us will go through our ups and downs, but eventually, the sooner we start choosing ourselves, the better life becomes, when we get rid of the noise of what the expectation of someone else is."

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