Nick Jonas has opened up about the “unpredictability” of life with type 1 diabetes.
The singer penned an open letter to the disease, more than two decades after he was first diagnosed.
“How long has it been? 21 years. 21 years, and you haven’t changed a bit,” Nick, 34, wrote. “It’s funny how often we talk. Every few minutes, honestly. Staring at my phone to see where my glucose is. Reaching for my pump to bolus (take a dose of insulin) because I’m about to eat something with 17 carbs.”
In the letter, written as part of the A Letter to Diabetes initiative, the father of one reflected on the challenges of living with the condition.
“Some days we actually get along, like we’re on the same team,” Nick wrote. “Other days you’re off on a solo mission, and it doesn’t matter how careful I am. You’re going to do what you’re going to do. In a lot of ways, that’s what family is like. You rely on each other, you push each other, and you know they’ll always be there. So even when you’re fighting, you trust the rug isn’t going to get pulled out from under you.”
The Chains singer added he sometimes “resents” the degree of control diabetes has over his life.
“When we first met, your unpredictability threw me. 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. Part of me is grateful I learned that lesson. Part of me resents you for it. Full stop,” he wrote. “There are days I wonder what life would feel like without you.”
Nick, who has been married to actress Priyanka Chopra since 2018, went on to reveal that despite the hardship, as someone who felt “misunderstood”, he had found a sense of community through meeting other people living with diabetes.
“I always struggled to feel like I belonged anywhere. At school, I felt misunderstood. In most circles, for that matter,” Nick admitted. “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.”
