On December 4, American news website The Cut, published an opinion piece questioning the authenticity of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ marriage. The extremely inappropriate and hate-filled article dubbed Priyanka a ‘global scam artist’ who had trapped Nick into marrying her to secure her footing in Hollywood. “Nicholas Jonas married into a fraudulent relationship against his will this past Saturday, December the 1st, and I’ll tell you why I think so.” The cringe-worthy piece continued, “All Nick wanted was a possible fling with Hollywood’s latest It Woman, but instead he wound up staring straight at a life sentence with a global scam artist…”
The tone-deaf piece reeked of sexism and racism and, unsurprisingly, the backlash came swiftly and strongly. In India and America, readers expressed their anger and disgust at the implication that marrying Nick was a scheming move on Priyanka’s part. A few celebrities such as Sonam Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor also came to the newlyweds’ defense.
For a publication that “shows women’s what they are made of” @TheCut has a lot to answer for . The article on @priyankachopra was sexist , racist and disgusting. Also it’s written by a woman which is so sad. It reeks of envy and bitterness. @mRiah shame on you! https://t.co/bmbbX7LrAT
— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) December 5, 2018
I know @priyankachopra personally & I’m fairly certain @nickjonas hasn’t been kidnapped & forced into a union of love… @NYMag u have an unhappy opinionated racist frustrated journalist who’s gone on n on about 2 people who by choice have gotten married. Tacky n uncouth writing. https://t.co/ngLvyqw6fD
— Arjun Kapoor (@arjunk26) December 5, 2018
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner also took to Twitter to express their views.
This is disgusting. @TheCut should be ashamed to have someone write such evil words. What Nick & Pri have is Beautiful Love. Thank u, Next. https://t.co/G3hvXmhm9O
— J O E J O N A S (@joejonas) December 5, 2018
This is wildly inappropriate and totally disgusting. Very disappointed that The Cut would give anyone a platform to spew such bullshit. https://t.co/iYKaifKJP6
— Sophie Turner (@SophieT) December 5, 2018
And now, Priyanka has responded to the piece. Speaking to Hindustan Times, she said, “I don’t even want to react or comment. It’s not even in my stratosphere. I’m in a happy place at this moment. These kind of random things can’t disturb it.”
The Cut‘s first reaction was to tone down the article and remove words such as ‘scam artist’ and the reference to Nick as a ‘victim’. But of course, that didn’t quite…cut it. Readers kept demanding that a public apology be issued to the couple. Later, the article was deleted from the website (but you can still read it here) and an apology note was published. It read: ‘Last night, The Cut published a post about Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra’s relationship that shouldn’t have gone up… The whole piece missed the mark. There is no good explanation for this other than human error and poor judgement. This was a mistake, and we apologize to our readers and to Priyanka and Nick.’
On December 8, the writer of the article, Mariah Smith, apologised on Twitter.
— mariah smith (@mRiah) December 7, 2018
Featured photograph (in red lehenga): People
