Mindy Kaling Drops 8-Word Comment That Won't Help B.J. Novak Romance Rumors

Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak's friendship has long been speculated to be something more. Their brief fling while working together on "The Office" seems to have inspired some truly wild rumors over the years, including the popular belief that Novak is actually the secret father of Kaling's children. This rumor, of course, has been dismissed (although the children's true father remains a mystery). Through it all, the two have remained best friends and supposedly nothing more, which might be far too rom-comy for the general public to handle (or believe).

While on the "Good Hang with Amy Poehler" podcast on June 30, 2026, Kaling went into detail about her early days in "The Office" writers' room. Kaling was the only woman in a writers' room full of men ahead in their careers, which narrowed her focus on work. "I really wanted to impress them," Kaling said on the podcast. "I really wanted to date some of them. And I was varying degrees of successful in those pursuits." Among these men was B.J. Novak, whom she began dating on and off in 2004. A decades-long friendship followed, but her eight-word comment about wanting to date her co-workers might shed light on where exactly this tight-knit friendship stemmed from: attraction.

B.J. Novak reflected on his early relationship with Mindy Kaling in a 2012 Vulture interview. "No one, including us, ever really knew, 'Is this dating? Is this not dating?' ... All you'd know for sure was that you'd always find one of us next to the other, even if we weren't getting along," he said. The two continued their unconventional relationship until 2007. Since then, more information has been revealed about their time dating, which seemed to consist of passionate writers' room arguments, admiration, and a refusal to leave each other's side. While accepting the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television in 2023, Novak called their relationship a "tumultuous, romantic, toxic, boundary-less mess" (via People). 

It's unclear whether or not the pair have truly left behind their "romantic, toxic, boundary-less" ways, but what's certain is that they've loyally remained in each other's lives. Novak has joined Kaling on the red carpet on numerous occasions, which in any other case would make things red-carpet official, but for these two, it's bestie support. At Kaling's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, however, Novak's speech leaned romantic (perhaps it's something he can't quite help given the history). He called Kaling "a brilliant and wildly successful showrunner and an incredible mother of three, a deep and caring daughter and friend." Later on in the ceremony, Kaling told Novak what we all know to be true, whether it be platonic or even the tiniest bit romantic: "I love you."