Nick Jonas is reflecting on navigating diabetes more than two decades after receiving his diagnosis.
“It’s funny how often we talk,” Jonas, 34, wrote in an open letter as part of Dexcom’s A Letter to Diabetes initiative. “Staring at my phone to see where my glucose is. Reaching for my pump to bolus because I’m about to eat something with 17 carbs. Those are just a couple of the hundreds of little decisions I make every week.”
He continued, “Most people never notice them. But they add up to a real relationship, because that’s what diabetes is. It’s an ongoing conversation between your body, your mind and your devices.”
The Jonas Brothers star, who is now a father, shared that the “unpredictability” of diabetes “threw” him when he initially received his diagnosis in 2005 at the age of 13. (Jonas and wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas welcomed their daughter, Malti, via surrogate in 2022.)
“I’d built my whole life around this unrealistic structure and belief that I was in control. You took that apart over the years, bit by bit,” he wrote. “Part of me is grateful I learned that lesson. Part of me resents you for it. Full stop. There are days I wonder what life would feel like without you.”
Despite resenting the disease for its impact on his life, Jonas also reflected on the positives of learning to live with Type 1 diabetes.
“I always struggled to feel like I belonged anywhere. At school, I felt misunderstood. In most circles, for that matter. Through my childhood and youth, that was the theme. It wasn’t until I started talking openly about life with type 1, and meeting other people who were living it too, that I finally felt like I belonged somewhere,” he explained, adding that he never wanted to be seen as a “victim.”
From Jonas’ perspective, his candidness about this journey may help others see someone like him “out there living their dreams.”
“I share my story for the 13-year-old who just got diagnosed and is lying in a hospital bed, scared to death. I want them to be able to look up and see someone out there living their dreams while managing all of this, every single day,” he said. “So thank you, old friend, for the lessons I never asked for. I’m going to keep sharing my story and telling the truth, so someone out there feels a little less alone.”
