Mindy Kaling Keeps Everyone Guessing About Her Relationship With B.J. Novak

Over the years, Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak have garnered attention for their unique dynamic. According to People, the former on-screen couple of "The Office" dated intermittently from 2004 to 2007. Then, in 2015, Kaling told InStyle (via Insider), "I will freely admit: My relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell. He is not my boyfriend, but he is not my best friend." She struggled to put a label on their relationship, continuing, "I guess you could describe our relationship as a 'romantically charged camaraderie with loud arguments,' but I don't think Facebook would accept this as a new status."

In 2019, Kaling revealed Novak as the godfather of her only child at the time, Katherine. She told Good Housekeeping, "The truth is that B.J. is so much more like family now than a platonic friend." Because of their close relationship, many fans assumed Novak to be the biological father of Kaling's children, Spencer and Katherine. In a 2019 piece for The New York Times, Kaling addressed her choice to not speak publicly about her child's father, saying, "My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I'm not going to talk to anyone else about it." But Kaling's recent social media post has fans continuing to wonder about the status of her and Novak's relationship.

Mindy Kaling isn't confirming or denying rumors in her latest post on Instagram. On August 28, she posted a series of photos at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles with her daughter Katherine, and one of the photos showed B.J. Novak holding her little girl. She captioned the pictures, "My four year old had the best night of her life at our star party + Saturn spotting at @griffithobservatory! We kept her up way past her bedtime and it was worth it, even though it was cloudy last night." She then gave a shout-out to Novak, saying, "Thank you @bjnovak for sharing your passion for astronomy and for @orionbearastronomy and @griffithobservatory for a spectacular night!"

Of course, people were quick to jump to conclusions in the comments section. One fan wrote, "He's the dad." Another person commented, "I know we're supposed to have moved on from this or whatever but you can't convince me BJ is not Mindy's baby daddy! Like, are you actually kidding me."

But these emphatic remarks haven't seemed to faze the actor. In a recent interview with Marie Claire, Kaling commented on the rumors about Novak being her children's father, saying, "It doesn't bother me. 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."