Queen Mindy Kaling has given birth to her first child, a daughter, and the name Mindy gave her could not be more perfect. Katherine Kaling was born on December 15, according to E! News, though Mindy’s reps have yet to confirm the news.
Kaling is not public about her relationship status and is choosing to remain tight-lipped about the identity of Katherine’s father. “My professional life is the only thing that I feel I have a lot of control over—romantic stuff is a little bit more mysterious,” she said to American Way magazine in September.
News broke back in July that Kaling was pregnant with her first child, who was, “an unexpected surprise,” and Kaling confirmed the news on the Today show in August. “It’s so unknown to me,” she told Today. “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.”
Other than her Today interview, Kaling has mostly chosen to let her co-stars and friends talk about her pregnancy. Her Mindy Project costars revealed to Us Weekly in September that she was expecting a girl, and Kaling confirmed this on The Ellen DeGeneres Show the following month. “I am not waiting,” Kaling said. “I wanted to know early.”
Kaling’s Wrinkle in Time costar Oprah Winfrey has also talked to press about baby Katherine, but Kaling wasn’t too upset about it.. “At first it was like, ‘OK, if anyone was going to announce big news about your private life, Oprah Winfrey is the person.’ You can’t complain that much about it. You also can’t be like, ‘Hey Oprah, zip it.’ Because she’s almost like a religious figure,” Kaling said to Ellen Degeneres. “I actually thought, ‘Well, OK, if there’s one person I have to tell my daughter about that revealed her existence to the world, Oprah’s pretty good.'”
And who wouldn’t want to gush to Oprah about their child? Congrats to both mom and baby, who I’m sure is absolutely gorgeous and is going to grow up laughing nonstop.