You would think that a successful entertainment mogul could have two children and people would recognize that it’s none of their business how they were conceived, but, well, this is not the world we live in. Mindy Kaling, who had a daughter Katherine in 2017 and a son Spencer in 2020, has never been forthcoming about her path to parenthood — she’s referred to herself as a single parent and called her first pregnancy an “unexpected surprise,” which is about all that’s publicly known on the subject. She’s also never revealed the paternity of her kids, and she shared why in a new Marie Claire interview. “I want them to be old enough to talk to me 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 they can potentially be mad at me about down the line.”
Of course, Kaling’s silence about her children’s conception has led to much speculation about who their father is, particularly whether it’s Kaling’s longtime colleague, former boyfriend, and current close friend B.J. Novak. Novak and Kaling have described their relationship in many confusing ways but generally insist it’s been platonic for years. Kaling, who referred to Novak as “the godparent to both my kids” in the interview, said the fact that so many people suspect he’s their father “doesn’t bother me.” “They have such a great relationship,” she added. “If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it.”
Kaling did talk about making the decision to have children in her late 30s, when she says she “had the means” to do so. She also said her No. 1 piece of advice to women is to freeze their eggs (though she didn’t specify whether she herself did it). “I wish every 19-year-old girl would come home from college and that the gift — instead of buying them jewelry or a vacation or whatever — is that their parents would take them to freeze their eggs,” she said. “They could do that once and have all these eggs for them, for their futures … to focus in your 20s and your 30s on your career and, yes, love, but to know that when you’re emotionally ready, and if you don’t have a partner, you can still have children.”
Unfortunately, as Kaling acknowledges, the $15,000 price tag currently makes egg freezing out of reach for a lot of people — but it’s a nice idea.