Here's Why You Won't See Mindy Kaling's Kids' Faces on Social Media Anytime Soon
Updated June 24 2024, 2:43 p.m. ET
Actress Mindy Kaling is also a successful producer and director, but when gets home her work takes a backseat to her mommy duties.
The Late Night star has three kids, daughter Katherine Swati, who she welcomed in 2017, son Spencer, who was born in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, and another daughter, Anne, who she surprised fans by announcing in 2024.
While Mindy has no problem gushing about her children, and her decision to embrace single parenthood, publicly, fans might have to wait a bit to see their faces on social media.
Mindy Kaling wants to wait for her kids' consent before posting photos of them online.
"I have no judgment for people in the public eye who share photos and videos of their children," Mindy told People magazine in 2021. "My sense is that [my kids] have no real consent right now to do that... I feel like I might as well wait until they get old enough so they can tell me if they want to be part of my social media or not."
She also wants to keep her children safe, as any mom would.
"I don't want to be at the airport and have someone be like, 'Spencer, Katherine,' and have them look to the people as though they know them or [their] friends, I think that could be really confusing as a kid," she added.
Privacy concerns aside, Mindy has shared some sweet details about her babies and their personalities.
Mindy's daughter Katherine "Kit" is named after her late mother.
Mindy named her oldest daughter, Katherine Swati, nicknamed "Kit," after the actress Katherine Hepburn and her late mother, Swati, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.
The actress has admitted in a collection of six personal essays, Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes), that not having her mother with her to share motherly advice was harder than being a single mother.
"When I was pregnant, I had enough time to visualize taking care of my daughter without a husband. That was easy. Most of my friends' husbands don't even change diapers," Mindy wrote. "But not having a mom around to support me was torture. It felt especially cosmically mean that my mother had been an obstetrician and gynecologist and I'd had a tough delivery."
Mindy named her son Spencer after her father.
Mindy Kaling's kids with her dad, Avu.
Spencer, nicknamed Spike, is Mindy's youngest and was born on Sept. 3, 2020. He was named after her father, Avu. She was able to hide her pregnancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic and claimed he made her lockdown experience a little better.
"I remember even at 5 or 6, the idea of trick-or-treating was terrifying to me," she told People. "So we took [Kit] last year and she had zero problem marching up to people's houses and saying 'trick-or-treat.' Our temperaments are pretty different. Which has been a surprise, but I'm so happy for her that she's not like that"
In June 2024, Mindy surprised fans by announcing the birth of her third child, Anne.
In an Instagram post on June 24, 2024, Mindy shared a photo slideshow announcing the newest addition to her family. Her two older children can be seen facing away from the camera while kissing their newborn sibling. The photoset also includes a snap of pregnant Mindy, and another of herself and her two older children in the delivery room.
Fans were quick to congratulate the actress, with many pointing out that they had no idea she was due with another child.
"Wait, did anyone even know she was [pregnant]?" one comment read.
"Queen of secretly giving birth," another said.
While the news about who Anne's father is remains a mystery — though some, of course, speculate that it could be BJ Novak — it seems that Mindy, along with her fans, family, and friends, are just happy to welcome a healthy baby into the world.