Mindy Kaling is enjoying motherhood. Her sweet little girl, Katherine Swati, is now 1½ years old. Although Mindy shares glimpses into her life as a parent, she doesn't share much about Katherine directly. In an effort to preserve her daughter's privacy, Mindy has never revealed the identity of Katherine's father. While it's certainly none of anyone's business, Mindy felt the need to explain why she's keeping that information to herself.
Mindy is raising Katherine as a single mom. She recently discussed motherhood as potential comedic fodder in an interview with the New York Times. During the conversation, Mindy was asked about how she came to the decision to keep her daughter's father's identity private. Her response was quite simple and speaks greatly to the kind of parent Mindy has decided to be. Putting her daughter's feelings first is a mother's instinct, but doing it while living in the spotlight can't be easy. Still, it seems Mindy has a clear idea of how to do just that.
Mindy Kaling is a confident woman who loves to play strong characters. She's carried that attitude with her into motherhood.
Mindy kept quiet about her pregnancy in 2017. The first confirmation about the news came from her A Wrinkle in Time costar, Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah told People Mindy broke the news to her at Disney’s D23 expo. "That’s when she told me. My mouth dropped," Oprah recalled. "'What did you just say?' she said, 'Oh, Oprah, I don’t think you know. I’m 5 months pregnant.' And I said, 'WHAAAAT?!'"
Mindy herself confirmed the news on Sunday Today in September 2017. She told Willie Geist: "It’s so unknown to me. I have a lot of control over a lot of aspects of my life, and this is one where I’m like, 'OK, it’s out of my hands,' which is kind of a fun feeling."
Mindy welcomed her little girl in late December 2017. She named her Katherine Swati Kaling.
Since then, Mindy has given fans a few rare glimpses into her life as a mother on her social media accounts. Still, she's very private when it comes to her daughter.
During a recent sit-down with the New York Times, Mindy spoke about keeping that part of her life private. She said, "I think people are often surprised that for someone who seems as open as I am on social media and who writes things that seem drawn from my life, I find that stuff really private."
It's not the first time Mindy has set that boundary. She discussed it with Glamour recently, explaining: "I do feel entitled to have privacy about my daughter and my relationships. It’s really essential to my life that there be something not everybody knows about. That’s a boundary, but it’s a very small boundary. Everything else I really don’t have any issue sharing."
Mindy also spoke on another matter of privacy. She discussed her decision to keep the identity of her daughter's father a secret.
When asked how she came to that decision, she explained, "My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it."
It makes perfect sense that Mindy would want to have that private, sensitive conversation with Katherine before getting the media involved. Since she's not yet 2 years old, that conversation is probably not going to happen for a while.
The identity of Mindy's child's father is really no one's business. By deciding to raise her child as a single mom, Mindy gave people a very clear hint that she didn't want to talk about her daughter's dad.
As for her decision not to post her baby's face on social media, she's not alone. A number of celebrities, like Zoe Saldana and Kristen Bell, have made the decision not to show their children's faces.
It's great to see that Mindy is as sure of herself in her personal life as she is in her professional life. We hope that Katherine inherits her mama's strong sense of self.
