Priyanka Chopra has shared the horrifying story of how a surgeon's accident caused her nose to collapse, leaving her "devastated and hopeless".
In her new memoir Unfinished, Chopra details what was meant to be routine surgery to remove a polyp in her nasal cavity. The Indian actor explained that the surgeon accidentally started shaving down the bridge of her nose in an attempt to remove the tissue, which then caused it to collapse.
After the bandages were removed, Chopra said her "original nose was gone".
"My face looked completely different. I wasn't me anymore," she said.
The Bollywood star said that she wasn't sure that her sense of self or self-esteem would ever recover and that the experience was incredibly emotional for her entire family - including her parents, who were doctors themselves.
"I felt devastated and hopeless. Every time I looked in the mirror, a stranger looked back at me," she wrote.
The press bestowed the cruel nickname 'Plastic Chopra' on the actress, who then lost her roles in two of the four films she had signed on for at the time.
"My career, a career based so much on physical appearance, seemed to be over before it had even really started," she wrote.
Eventually - and after several more surgeries - Chopra's nose was restored to a point where she has been able to become "accustomed" to it.
"Now when I look in the mirror, I am no longer surprised," she wrote. "I've made peace with this slightly different me."
