These are mostly photos of Mindy Kaling at the Met Gala this year, back in May. She wore a spectacular Gaurav Gupta gown and she was one of my picks for best dressed of the gala. For some reason, I felt like we had been seeing a lot of Mindy over the past year, but I was looking through our archives, and she really did largely disappear in the last half of 2023 and early this year. Considering she’s not in people’s faces constantly, I guess people didn’t realize that we weren’t seeing her on red carpets or in magazines for an extended space of time. Well, in that space where she sort of disappeared (minus some curated social media posts), she was gestating a whole-ass baby. AGAIN. She was pregnant with her third child for a good chunk of 2023, and she gave birth to her second daughter in February. Mindy just announced it on her Instagram:
In late February I gave birth to my daughter, Anne. She’s the best birthday present I could’ve ever imagined. When things are hard, whenever I veer towards cynicism, my three kids are such a great reminder of the pure joy in my life. I’m so lucky I live in a place where I could do this by myself, on my own timeline. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
One of the things which is so wild (to me) about Mindy doing this single-motherhood-by-choice thing is how easily she flies under the radar during her pregnancies. Her second pregnancy was largely out of view, minus a few paparazzi photos in her third trimester. This one was even quieter and more shocking. I also find her baby names to be so… Anglo. There are some really cute Indian baby names (Arun, Rohan, Sarita!), but she’s gone with such WASPy names – Spencer, Katherine (known as Kit) and now Anne. They’re all royal-ish names too. It’s wild. Anyway, congrats to her. I’m not going to speculate on the paternity, it’s none of my business and she’s made it clear that she’s not talking about it. But I do wonder if BJ Novak is going to be Anne’s “godfather” too.
Photos courtesy of Instagram & Cover Images.
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Mindy Kaling Where: New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: Michael Stewart/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities depart The Pierre Hotel for the 2024 Met Gala: ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Featuring: Mindy Kaling wearing Gaurav Gupta Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: TheNews2/Cover Images
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Mindy Kaling Where: New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: Michael Stewart/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities attend the 2024 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Mindy Kaling Where: New York, United States When: 06 May 2024 Credit: Michael Stewart/INSTARimages.com
Congratulations to her and her family! Whatever the process of having her children is for her, I am so glad that she is doing exactly what she wants to do on her own terms and has created a lovely little family. As I teach my children, families are made in all different ways, in all different versions and isn’t it amazing all the ways people can create their own unit of love?
Love your comment and definition of family. Nicely expressed.
She either likes the traditional Anglo names or those are the names she is giving to the public. Wouldn’t surprise me if a different name was on their birth certificates, but it wouldn’t surprise me if these are their legitimate names. Either way, congratulations to her! I selfishly hope she is able to take some time relatively soon to grace our screen’s, whether as the writer, producer, or actor. I love her talent.
Utterly baseless speculation on my behalf:
(1) She and BJ made a bunch of embryos via IVF a few years ago.
(2) These are book character names. I’d bank hard on something like Anne of Green Gables. Mindy’s a smart cookie!
And I root for her so, so hard. She broke a lotta glass getting where she is, and I respect the bejeesus out of her.
Love & congrats!!!
Exactly!! I know, in my extended family, the process of conceiving, delivering, naming and raising kids has varied greatly. A few of us chose more traditional paths and others did not. I will forever be inspired by a very elderly family member who vocally embraced some more surprising choices made by her son and DIL.
Happy birthday and congratulations to Mindy! I had no idea she was either pregnant or a mother of 3.
As to the names, her parents wanted her to have an American name, according to her Wiki page. Her mom passed away—maybe Anne is sort of to honor her parents’ naming her Mindy and in memory of her mom? Do the kids have middle names?
Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, and Anne somebody
For your theme, Bancroft?
Yeah, everyone raves about how great her “normal” baby names are but they seem like they’re from someone’s outdated baby Pinterest board or something to me lol.
Congrats to her though, I appreciated the way she spoke about her motherhood journey on Archetypes. She’s clearly incredibly devoted to her children.
And now I feel bad for ragging on the insane photoshopping on her swimsuit campaign- postpartum women get aaaaallll the passes. All the best to her.
Congrats to her. Glad she is able to keep her pregnancies and children as low as she wants them to be.
Agree about the names. Names are one facet of your cultural heritage / identity and giving (Half?) Indian babies those lily white names…
It’s her choice, obviously, but it’s a bit sad, imo.
I suspect she didn’t want her children to be teased in school or have people mispronounce their names. But I get what you mean. Hopefully they have Indian middle names.
Teased in school for a name that isn’t Anglo? In an LA private school, or whatever? That seems shocking and unlikely in 2024. I would hope.
I know there is still a lot of racism and Xenophobia. I was just hoping that the “weird foreign name” aspect of American racism would be at lower levels in certain spaces at this point in time than it was when I was a kid. 🙁
While it is certainly her choice her choice her choice…
As a POC I just wonder what it would take for me to choose a non poc donor for the children of my single motherhood and also remove any cultural significance in naming them..
I love Mindy, I want to believe that the content of Never Have I Ever points to a cultural pride, but… I do wonder
I wonder as well. Not just you. Hope they’re all happy and well.
It all tracks with her colonialist mentality.
The same Never have I ever where she wrote the lead to end up with an emotionally abusive jerk who racistly mocks her name, calls her ugly, body shames her, ghosts her after sex, body shames her and uses another Indian girl (whom he mocks her intelligence) to make her feel small and insecure? That show?
Mindy is obsessed with whiteness, I mean watch any of her work and she tells you. Her characters are always with chasing abusive white men, they put their entire self worth in what white people think. They only try and do date white men and even if they dabble with men of color they will end up with an emotionally abusive toxic white man who puts down her culture.
Mindy project
Never have I ever
College girls
Late night
Not sure why people are shocked on the names.
Ben was stupid and Hhella problematic, but I chalked that up to the teenaged setting and the fact that both characters were a*holes tbh. I meant that NHIE did spend a significant amount of time celebrating her heritage especially with Kamala.
The rest of her shows, spot on. Chasing white men. Being a woman of color when it suited her. And I think it’s one thing to say that race, culture, nationality doesn’t define the characters she creates up to a point (personally i wouldn’t divide the two but I think that’s part of why TMP works)
I think it’s another, completely to see that play out in a choice of sperm donor (unless it is in fact someone she knows personally)I could care less about the names except as an extension of that particular choice. But who knows
@Lisa Mindy basks in white approval. She’s a talented writer who uses her platform to advance the idea that she’s really just a white girl who happens to be Indian. If you want to see self-loathing on display, watch Velma. On second thought, don’t.
@dalat after Never had I ever had Devi end up with Ben who was not on abusive and racist to Devi but all the women of color on that show but also the MEN of color (Paxton and Des), and even did the entire are of a black women “stealing” an Asian woman’s spot from an Ivy. Yeah I will never watch anything Mindy does again. I’ll watch the office reruns cause she’s a staff writer but I’m not supporting someone that puts out such dangerous ideas into the world.
Ben was an abuser- that boys bully you because they like you is how women end up in dangerous relationships and there were literally three better and exponentially more popular options but mindy always wants her lead WOC with white men that hate them.
Personally I wouldn’t think anything of the names other than she likes them but she has a pattern in her work I can’t and won’t ignore that I find truly troubling because of the larger message.
I could have sworn she was at the award shows this year but apparently not. Congrats to her and her family.
I love Mindy so much, and I love that she has created the family that she wanted. I’ve always believed that she just used a donor for her kids. It’s very common nowadays.
Congratulations to her! Sounds exhausting and expensive.
Mindy dated white guys on her show,her best friend and alleged father of her children is white and now the telling name choices. I dont want to call it self hate but there is something deeper.
Agreed.
I get that feeling too. Hopefully, the names are either nicknames, or they have middle names that reflect her heritage, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if neither is the case. She hasn’t been the best representative to Indian/South Asian culture imo.
Their middle names are Mindy’s parents names. I read that Kit is named after Katherine Hepburn. I imagine that goes for Spencer Tracy too. Who knows.
@neeve I agree with you. She’s struck me as someone always trying to be someone else. Never been a fan.
And her oldest two are named after Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, which is strange.
As far as her pregnancies being under the radar, not shocking. She’s a celebrity, but not that famous and most people aren’t checking for her like that.
Considering how all her POC female characters are portrayed, and who she chooses for their love interest, repeatedly… her own storyline on and off The Office with BJ, those names sure are something, considering what the Brits did to India, the names she chose…wow!!
Then again didn’t her brother apply to colleges and say he was black…..
Oh no! The colonialism of it all
She wasn’t treated all that well as a young actrice. Criticisms of her face, her figure. She seems happy healthy and beautiful. Going on speculation, the father is Novak, she loved him forever, it entors
Probably get slapped for this, but I find it … icky that everyone is speculating and projecting all of these “isms” on her based on her children’s names. Self hate? Colonialist mentality? Not going to speculate, but I bet he’s white?
Could there be anything more personal than choosing to have and raise three kids? Must she have a reason that others “accept” for why she chose these names – as if it is anyone’s business? Must she live her life to overtly support whatever culture others want her to champion?
This is a woman having babies and raising a loving family, whatever she chooses to call them. She’s not trying to check off anyone’s boxes. Congratulations and wish her family well.
I agree with you completely. We have no idea why or how she decided on her children’s names, who the father(s) is/are and what race that person(s) may be. This woman is just living her life and making her own choices that feel right for her and her family and I hope every one of us has that same freedom to do what we chose in the way that we chose.
Agreed. Those comments are gross. Congrats to Mindy. I’m a big fan and those kids are lucky to have such a smart and successful mom!
💯 this. I’m reading through some of these comments and they’re straight-up cringey.
Everything I’ve ever read about her indicates that she’s highly organized and disciplined, and therefore likely thought all of this through before Kit was born.
When I was running a program for (mostly) women who needed to rebuild their lives after the primary breadwinner in the household either died, left, became disabled or they were getting kicked off public assistance (my training was my own experience doing that slog), it really brought home something I’d known but had never before found the right words to express it: It’s really easy to be good at other people’s lives.
Mazal tov to Mindy and her family. She’s got this.
This.
Congratulations to her on the birth of her daughter! It sounds like she has a lovely family that she’s very happy with!
Seriously, the comments in this thread are gross.
Truly.
I love Mindy. She is knock-out gorgeous. She is hilarious. If you follow her on Insta, she is still closest friends with her college buddies and roommates. She has mentored female writers of various races and helped them get their shows produced, which is saying a LOT in the industry: it’s still pretty rare in the industry for women in positions of power to do that. Mindy’s next show is about pro basketball, starring Kate Hudson and (among others) Chet Hanks(!) Mindy can write about whatever TF she wants.
I agree, I find it odd. Why can’t she just choose names she likes, as does everyone else?
She’s just a few years younger than me, I can’t imagine having two kids and a newborn, but I admire that she knew what she wanted and has made it happen, and that she’s kept it all private.
Yeah, I’m not even a big fan myself, but jeez this is harsh.
100, @Molly.
Completely agree. So, as an Asian American person, what I’m reading from the above comments is, if I name my kid Brandon, then I’m not Asian enough. I must write about the Asian American diaspora experience to be authentic. I cannot like white guys, only other POC. Got it. I don’t follow Mindy’s work closely, but it feels like maybe she is pushing back against exactly this sort of policing with her creativity.
Jeez, you are so right. Some of these keyboard warriors here lack the ability to see they’re instructing a woman of color how to appropriately represent herself. Wow. Just… wow.
Big loves to Mindy, who is smart and hilarious and unapologetically herself. Even if that doesn’t align with what some people want from an Indian-American woman…
The whole world feels free to criticize women, what they wear, how they speak, their makeup, their figure, the list is endless and now apparently their choice of baby names. Congrats to Mindy and her entire family.
I am currently dealing with a complete sociopath named Anne so needless to say, I hate the name. I’m happy for Mindy though.
In her book she shared about the partaking in the traditional Mundan ceremony, which involves shaving a baby’s head, is believed to rid the child of negativity from their past life. So she holds to some of her Indian Hindu heritage.
Listen. I’m off and on when it comes to Mindy and her Americanized ways but I also get it. I am first generation daughter of Nigerian immigrants and when you grow up in New England like Mindy and I have, there is pressure to fit in or get lost. The united States is meant to keep people separate so when your black or brown and growing up here we are fighting for our lives.
Look at that monstrous creature Nimarata Haley. She changed her name and gave herself American southern accent to present a certain way. In my opinion V.P. Harris has seemed to embrace both of her ethnicities and show deep love for both.
Anyway. It’s not easy being a non-white person in this country, so maybe extend a bit of grace even if we don’t fully understand.
Well said girl_ninja 🙂
For the last time, Nikki Haley did not change her name. Her birth name is Nimrata Nikki, Nikki has a meaning in her culture. She didn’t just adopt it to hide her identity. She’s always gone by Nikki. I don’t even like her but the narrative around her name is old and tired.
Congratulations to her that is amazing she is building the family she wants the way she wants. I saw her and her kids at my farmers market and her children are beautiful, I wish her all the best.
I like Anne. It’s a pretty name. Don’t care why she named her, how she raises them, or who is the father. As long as they grow up loved, supported, and safe, I’m good. I really like that she protects the children’s privacy.
I am half Italian and didn’t learn to speak Italian because my Italian grandparents were fearful of my father getting beat up for having an accent (he already got beat up due to his size). I am glad I have a European pronunciation first name though—ondreeahh or ondrayyahh instead of annndreeeahh and my last name is very Italian as well. I always cringe when people choose western names. I feel people should name their kids whatever and other people should be polite and ask about pronunciation, spelling, etc.