Mindy Kaling is sharing the important parenting advice she received from her children’s godfather, B.J. Novak.
Earlier this week, Kaling, 43, opened up about how her childhood insecurities play into her experience as a mother to Katherine, 4, and Spencer, 2.
“I grew up always feeling ugly, overweight, othered. And so with my daughter I'm always telling her that she’s beautiful. To the point where my friend B.J. is like ‘You can tell her other compliments,’” Kaling told “Archetypes” podcast host Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
As a kid, Kaling was praised for being "smart" and excelling in school, but she also longed for positive comments about her appearance. For that reason, Kaling said she tends to put too much emphasis on Katherine's looks when doling out praise.
"It’s funny to realize ‘Oh, I’m focusing too much on this.’ Every morning I’m like ‘You’re so beautiful,’ to the point where that’s not healthy either," she explained.
Kaling and Novak, 43, met in 2004 on the set of "The Office," and had an on-and-off romance for several years.
"We were never really dating, we were never really not dating. We didn’t know. No one knew," Novak explained in a 2012 interview with Vulture. "All you’d know for sure is that you’d always find one of us next to the other, even if we weren’t getting along."
Though their romantic relationship ended, the writers, who have been friends since they were 24, have remained close friends and even attended the 2022 Oscars together. Last month, Novak took Katherine to an observatory to learn about astronomy.
“B.J. is so much more like family now than a platonic friend,” Kaling told Good Housekeeping in 2019. “He’s the godfather to my daughter, he comes over like once a week. Sometimes he’ll come over just to hang out with her.”
While speaking to Meghan Markle, the actor also reflected on her heritage and being a single mother.
“There’s a whole Indian angle on it too, right?" she said. “I haven’t been to India since [I was] 14, but you start thinking, like, ‘What do my relatives in India think about this? Is this causing tremendous shame upon our family, that I made this decision?’”
But ultimately, Kaling refuses to make herself “crazy” worrying about what others think.
“When you’re a certain age and you’re a single woman at a party, it bums people out,” she said. “You get this feeling like ‘Oh, I’m changing the vibe here because everyone’s worried about me or sad for me.”
Kaling was quick to note she’s anything but sad.
“I’m a rich successful woman with great clothes and a nice family,” she said. “I promise you I’m happy and I’m not just saying that."
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