Best friends until the end! B.J. Novak gave Mindy Kaling a major shout-out after she took on the viral “How It Started vs. How It’s Going” challenge.
On Wednesday, October 21, the Mindy Project creator, 41, shared a photo of herself in an old episode of The Office next to a snap taken on the red carpet at the 2020 Oscars. Kaling teased her glow up in the caption, writing, “So yeah, it’s going pretty well. How about you?”
Ever the supportive pal, Novak, 41, couldn’t help but gush over the Late Night actress. “I like both,” he commented.
Novak and Kaling have a long history — and briefly dated while working together on The Office. During an appearance at BookCon in 2015, the Never Have I Ever producer joked that the dynamic duo’s experience on the NBC sitcom was “like going to college twice together.” Two years prior, Novak opened up about the constant speculation that the former costars might still be more than friends.
“Whenever we date anyone else, I think there’s a period where the person is very skeptical of our friendship,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. “‘Everyone seems to think you two might be a couple, and I don’t mean to get in the way. Are you sure you’re not dating? Are you sure you’re not going to end up dating?’ It’s such a common thing to have that platonic best friend that becomes a little weird when you start dating someone.”
Even after The Office ended in 2013, the pair’s bond continued to grow stronger. Kaling welcomed her first child, daughter Katherine, in December 2017, and still felt grateful to have her best friend by her side two years later.
“He comes over at least once or twice a week to just hang out with my daughter,” the A Wrinkle in Time star told Us Weekly exclusively in December 2019. “When he does that, I can go take a shower or go work out. … He’s great.”
Earlier this month, Kaling revealed that she gave birth to her second child, a baby boy, in September. “This is news to a lot of people. It’s true!” she gushed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “His name is Spencer. I forgot the most important part of it.”
Days later, Kaling thanked her fans for all of their kind words about the new addition to her family. The Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) author has kept the identity of both of her children’s fathers under wraps.
“My feeling is that, until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it,” she explained to The New York Times in June 2019.
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