Mindy Kaling Makes Rare Comment About 'Office' Costar B.J. Novak 20 Years After Sparking Baby Daddy Speculation

Mindy Kaling addressed speculation that her Office costar B.J. Novak is the father of her three children in a new interview.

The actress, 46, called him "family" when she talked to Bustle about her relationship with the man she dated from 2004-2007, in an interview published Tuesday, May 19.

Amongst her office decorations are a “Never Complain, Never Explain” embroidered photo, which is a gift from Novak, also 46, along with photos of her kids, Katherine aka Kit, 8, Spencer, 5, and Anne, 2, and a selfie of Kaling and Novak.

In the interview, she noted that she does not share her children's faces publicly.

"He really is in our family, and I love talking about him because my kids adore him, and he’s such a huge part of our life," she said. "But I also know that it gives people a lot of ideas. If I was just watching it from the outside, I would have the same questions and the same reactions.”

She's not dating anyone now, she told Bustle, but admitted that she's not “actively searching for that person.”

Kaling explained, “I obviously have eyes and ears, and if there was someone that I had a crush on, of course I would react to that, but right now, there is not anyone out there. It is crazy for someone like me, who only wrote about the pursuit of romance for so much of my life, to be very happy and content without a partner.”

For now, she refuses to reveal the identity of her children's father.

“The ramifications are so immediate for them that I just want to make sure that however I talk about it is in a way that really respects their privacy,” Kaling told Bustle.

Becoming a single mom “felt really crazy,” she said.

"It's one of the biggest mysteries in my life, this fervent knowledge that I knew I had to have kids that was not based on any real love of children,” she said. “B.J., for instance, he’s always been a kid person. He has a brother who’s 13 years younger than him, and he loved his little brother and just always has been a kid person. It’s such a deep mystery why I needed to do it.”

Her mother dying of pancreatic cancer in 2012 amped up her desire to become a mother.

“It was one of those things where it was not cerebral at all," Kaling said. 'It was just a decision that was completely moved by my soul.”

Single motherhood isn't easy.

Solo parenting “been enormously challenging, but I’m so lucky because I waited till I was older, and I have more resources," Kaling said. "I have an incredible nanny. My dad and stepmom are a huge part of my kids’ lives. It’s been so much better than I ever thought it would be.”

But she's not looking for marriage, or her goal of writing for Saturday Night Live, or being a cast member.

“That’s interesting," she said. "Those things could happen, but I think I don’t necessarily need them anymore, maybe, which is a nice feeling.”

It's not the first time the actors have addressed speculation about the truth behind his involvement with her children.

"Fun fact: My daughter calls B.J. 'Uncle FoPo,'" Kaling said during her Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling ceremony in February 2025. "I have no idea why that is, but he’s such an important and integral part of my family that sometimes I forget that the reason I know him is because we worked together professionally, and I’m as starstruck by him now as I was when I first met you. I love you."

Novak sung her praises.

"Someone whose dating life they have a lot of opinions about, that’s the job of fame," he said at the event. "Mindy respects and understands this in a very intuitive way because, in addition to being a wildly successful showrunner, an incredible mother of three, she knows it’s human nature to be curious about all of it. As a result, even though it’s a job you can never fully control, it’s a job she handles beautifully."