Mindy Kaling hasn’t shared the details of her two children’s father, but like, is that going to stop anyone from speculating? Of course not. Luckily for all of us, Kaling appears unbothered by the rumors. Specifically, the rumors that her longtime friend and The Office co-star BJ Novak is the real father of 4-year-old Katherine and 2-year-old Spencer.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Kaling told Marie Claire in a recent profile interview. “He’s the godparent to both my kids—and they have such a great relationship—and so far [the rumors haven’t] affected my happiness at all, it hasn’t affected my kids or BJ… If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it.” Personally, I’ve always chocked up these theories to a sort of real life Kelly-and-Ryan fan-fiction, but apparently Kaling doesn’t care either way.
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Kaling chose to have her two kids on her own as a single parent and, FWIW, she doesn’t talk about their conception with them either, according to the Marie Claire interview. “I want them to be old enough to talk to me about it and how they want me to talk about it,” she said. “I’m the only parent my kids have…I think I err on the side of super cautious so that there’s less things that they can potentially be mad at me about down the line.” She also said that becoming a parent by herself and on her own terms was the best part of her life. “It’s the thing that I hope women feel confident doing by themselves.”
It’s also not the first time Mindy Kaling has been asked about the whole BJ Novak thing. While they did date very briefly at the beginning of The Office, now they’re just best friends. “If I was on the outside looking at it, I would think the same thing,” she told Good Housekeeping in 2019.
