Mindy Kaling has announced that she has given birth to her third baby: a little girl called Anne. Sharing a sweet snap of her two eldest - Katherine, six, and Spencer, three - kissing their newborn sister to Instagram, Mindy took pains to explain why she had decided to keep her pregnancy and Anne's birth a secret since she was born four months ago.
She wrote in the caption of her surprise post, '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!'
And this isn't the first time that Mindy has gone under the radar with news of her pregnancy.
Since the birth of her daughter Katherine - who goes by the nickname Kit - in December 2017, Mindy Kaling has kept quiet about the identity of her daughter's father. The same goes for Mindy's son Spencer who was born in September 2020.
In an interview with The New York Times two years after Kit's birth, the Late Night actress explained why she decided to keep her daughter’s father private - and it’s for a totally admirable reason. When asked by the journalist how she arrived at the decision not to publicly talk about it, Mindy replied, ‘My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it.’
While it's a great explanation of why Mindy won't answer questions about her daughter's DNA, there shouldn’t even be an expectation for her to share the details in the first place. Just because Mindy Kaling is a famous woman, doesn’t mean she has to share every single little detail about her family and her pregnancy. But, unfortunately, these are the standards women in the public eye are often held to. A similar situation arose in March when Cameron Diaz welcomed her second child.
The questions surrounding Mindy Kaling's dating life and who the father of her children are, have arisen with each of Mindy's three children because the 45 year old has not been publicly linked to anyone in recent years - except for her ex-boyfriend and her childrens' godfather BJ Novak (who she on-off dated while they were working together on The Office) that is. Despite their constant denials it often feels like the pair will never be able to escape those rumours in fans' eyes.
The fact remains however that it isn't anyone's business. Mindy Kahling is obviously very aware of the scrutiny surrounding her and there are likely a plethora of reasons as to why she has decided to protect her three children and their father or fathers in this way. It's not for us to speculate - if she wanted us to know, she would tell us.
Oh, and whilst we're on the topic can we stop using the phrase 'baby daddy' - it's reductive and insulting.
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film.