Mindy Kaling Has The Chillest Response To Rumors That B.J. Novak Is Her Kids' Father

Mindy Kaling knows what you’re talking about. She knows her fans are curious about her 4-year-old daughter Katherine and 1-year-old son Spencer’s birth stories. She knows there are rumors swirling around that her longtime friend and former co-star B.J. Novak is the father of her children. She’s just not concerned about it.

“If that's what is going to be titillating to people, I'll take it,” Kaling told Marie Claire in an new interview, and I think that’s awfully generous of her, to be honest.

The Mindy Project star has rather famously been protective of sharing her children’s birth stories since welcoming her first child, 4-year-old Katherine “Kit” Kaling, back in 2017. She has, however, been open about Novak’s close relationship to her children through the years. In 2020, Novak even showed up to play Santa Claus at the Kaling household. “Her godfather is B.J. Novak, and he is going to show up and go to our living room, where the tree is, in a Santa costume,” she said at the time. “Just so you know, we’re Hindu and B.J. is Jewish, so this is, like, cultural appropriation on our part.”

Perhaps because of their close friendship, the pair’s dating history, and Novak’s relationship with her children, rumors that Novak is the father of her children have persisted. And it’s really not a big deal for anyone involved. “It doesn't bother me,” Kaling told Marie Claire about the rumors. “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 B.J.”

Just because Kaling is comfortable with the rumors about Novak, however, doesn’t mean she’s going to share Katherine and Spencer’s conception stories anytime soon. Her plan is to wait for her kids to decide what they want to share. “I want them to be old enough to talk to me about it and [tell me] how they want me to talk about it,” she told Marie Claire. “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.”

As for Novak’s role in their lives, Kaling has said that he’s a “staple” in their household and absolutely loves being a godfather. So much so that he’s ready to take over for her should anything ever happen. “You know, he said the funniest thing because he's so attached to my older child, my daughter," she told TODAY in 2020. “When I said, you know, B.J., if something happens to me, it's not like I have a husband, like you have to just take the kids. And he's like, ‘Oh, my God, don't tempt me.’”

That’s the kind of godfather a single mom needs in her corner. No wonder Kaling is unbothered by rumors about her relationship with Novak. She knows she’s got a great set up.