Priyanka Chopra took her family on a trip to Turks and Caicos after her father passed away, recalls mother: ‘We hadn’t cried until then’ | Bollywood News

Priyanka Chopra’s father Ashok Chopra passed away after a long illness in 2013 and the family went through a rather difficult phase in trying to cope with their loss. In a recent interview, Priyanka’s mother Madhu Chopra shared that for months after Ashok’s death, the three members of the family – her, Priyanka, and son Siddharth, were grieving on their own and weren’t talking to each other about their feelings. Six months later, Priyanka decided that the family needed to come together to cope with the loss and so, the three of them went on a vacation to Turks and Caicos.
In a chat with Debinna Bonnerjee on her YouTube channel, Madhu shared, “We were just immersed into each other. I had no life outside of my family, we were too tight. Priyanka and Siddharth also… Priyanka would just go to work and come back. We were a very tight unit.”
Talking about her husband’s death, Madhu shared, “The loss was not sudden, we knew he was ill so we were mentally prepared a little bit but when the loss actually happened, all three of us were grieving on our own, in different ways. Six months into that, Priyanka said this is not working, we have to share with each other, we have to be together so she took us on a holiday to Turks and Caicos, just the three of us.”
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Madhu said that until then, they had not cried to process the loss. “We hadn’t cried until then. We wouldn’t speak to each other, just all three of us quietly moving around, going on with our lives as if nothing happened, that was like our defence mechanism. I wouldn’t cry thinking how will the kids handle it, kids wouldn’t cry because they didn’t want me to feel bad,” she said. Madhu said that this vacation changed their perspective on loss and shared, “We spent a week there, bonded very well, spoke what we wanted to speak, came back so refreshed we could get back to work with new energy. These things don’t fade, don’t go away, the hurt stays but you learn how to deal with it and it becomes easier to deal with it.”
In an earlier chat with Lehren Retro, Madhu shared that six days after her husband’s death, her daughter threw her a birthday party. “After his passing, we were grieving, but Priyanka insed that we go ahead with the party and asked everyone to stay. She said, ‘That’s what dad would have wanted’,” she shared and added that John Abraham showed up like a birthday present at this party. “They had requested John to come at midnight, wrapped like a birthday present. Imagine that! Priyanka said, ‘Mom has to have her moment.’ It was such a fun party with a DJ and music. But the rest of the family sat there gloomily, saying, ‘Look at her! She’s dancing! Does she not grieve for her husband?’ Meanwhile, I was thinking, ‘My daughter arranged all this; my kids put in so much effort. They’re all suffering and grieving, but this is how she is honouring her dad.’ Priyanka even said, ‘I am honouring his wish and you better fall in line with it.’ That’s the person she is,” she said.