'You kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince': Priyanka Chopra on why respect matters more than love for women
Everyone loves to talk about ‘the one’ in their life. The spark, the butterflies, the moment you just know. It makes for a good rom-com, but Priyanka Chopra Jonas thinks we've been asking the wrong question all along. In a 2025 interview with Harper Bazar, Priyanka looked back at the relationships that didn't work out before she met her husband, Nick Jonas, and pointed to the one thing that actually mattered in the end. Priyanka said, “ You have to look for someone who respects you. Respect is different from love and affection... You've got to kiss a lot of frogs until you find your prince.”It is a simple statement, but one that resonates with many women who have realised that love alone is not enough to sustain a healthy relationship.Why respect and love aren't interchangeableHere's the distinction worth sitting with: love is a feeling. It shows up, it fades, it surges back. Respect is something you do, on purpose, over and over, especially on the days you don't feel particularly in love. You can tell someone you love them every single day and still talk over them, roll your eyes at their goals, or brush past a boundary they've made clear. Saying "I love you" costs nothing. Actually listening: letting your partner hold opinions you don't share, choosing your words carefully mid-argument, treating their work and their friendships as real, costs something. That's why it counts.Why this hits differently for womenThere's a reason this particular piece of advice tends to land hardest with women. So often, the wear and tear in a relationship shows up after the honeymoon phase, in the small, repeated moments: whose career gets prioritized, who's assumed to handle the house, whose name is on the decisions that get made without a conversation.A partner who actually respects you doesn't need you to get smaller so the relationship stays comfortable. He doesn't treat your ambition as a threat or your domestic labor as a given. He includes you in the decisions that affect you both, and he treats your time and your feelings as being just as real as his own.Honesty is what respect is built onPriyanka Chopra also revealed she always looked for honesty in a relationship as she was "hurt" by dishonesty in previous relationships. It's no coincidence that honesty was first on Priyanka's list. You can't really respect someone, or be respected by them, if you don't trust what they're telling you.And honesty is also about being upfront on the harder stuff: money, future plans, the mistakes you'd rather not admit to. The moment honesty slips, insecurity creeps in quietly, and respect tends to erode right along with it.Shared values outlast shared playlistsIt's easy to assume compatibility comes from liking the same shows or wanting the same vacations. Those things help, sure. But they're not what carries a relationship through its harder stretches. What Priyanka was really describing was alignment on the things that don't change week to week: how you treat family, how seriously you take your work, whether you're both moving in a similar direction. ‘The frogs’ were never the pointThe most honest part of Chopra's advice might be the frogs line itself. It's not an endorsement of staying in bad relationships: it's an acknowledgment that most of us don't learn what we actually need until we've lived through what doesn't work.Priyanka Chopra married Nick Jonas in 2018, in a lavish ceremony at Jodhpur's Umaid Bhawan Palace. But when she talks about what actually makes it work, she doesn't start with the wedding or the romance. She starts with respect. Love is probably still what brings two people together in the first place. But respect, it turns out, is what makes them keep choosing each other: long after the spark was ever the reason.