The actress took a walk down memory lane, recalling a “tumultuous relationship” before her marriage to husband Nick Jonas and her initial reservations about pursuing a relationship

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is giving new insight into her relationship with her husband Nick Jonas.

The actress, 40, took a walk down memory lane on the latest episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, detailing the couple’s first moments together before tying the knot in 2018.

“I was in a tumultuous relationship at that time. This is ’16. We had common friends who didn’t want me to be in my relationship and were like, ‘Oh, he’s single too.’ He’s really not with that girl, but he is. It was complicated on both our ends,” confessed Priyanka.\

PHOTO: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY

Without revealing the name of her ex, she shares that the relationship was near its end when Nick, 30, would go on to send Priyanka a message through Twitter in 2016, adding that she “didn’t want to engage as much at the time.”

“I was also like 35, Nick was 25. I really put a stop to it in a way because I judged the book by the cover. I said, ‘I wanna settle down. I have been there and done the fun dating things,” Priyanka said. “I was like ready to get serious.”

While the two would not go on to meet in person until a week before attending the 2017 Met Gala together as Ralph Lauren’s guests, having kept in touch only through “random texts,” Priyanka shared that she still had reservations, explaining that some of her exes were “a little bit narcissistic.”

“I kept making the same mistakes,” she said. “A lot of the pattern in my relationships was me feeling gaslit because I gave that kind of power to the people that I was with, where I was like, ‘You come first,'” sharing that she got “so much clarity on what I needed,” before her relationship with Nick.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas with daughter Malti. PRIYANKA CHOPRA/INSTAGRAM
Years later, the couple would go on to welcome Malti Marie, now 14 months, on Jan. 15. 2022. The baby girl spent her first 100-plus days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), making it home just in time for Mother’s Day.

“Our baby is truly a badass,” the Jonas Brothers musician wrote on Instagram in May 2022 while reflecting on her homecoming. “Our next chapter begins now.”

A source told PEOPLE at the time that the couple was “truly eager to be parents. They are beyond excited,” adding: “Nick and Priyanka have wanted a baby for some time.”

“This is a happy time for all. Nick and Priyanka are definitely ready for this new challenge in their lives. It is something they have both wanted,” another insider said. “Now is their time, and they could not be more ready to raise a child.”