Mindy Kaling revealed the special role her dad, Avu Chokalingam, plays in her children’s lives in a special Father’s Day tribute.
“My dad shows up,” the Mindy Project alum, 44, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, June 18. “He was the one who drove me from the hospital after both my kids were born. To this day, he comes to the house at least once a day to play with the kids, take them to the farmers market, pick them up from school, or walk Spencer around the block in my son’s precious blue toddler car. He also says yes to my kids insane plans like ‘let’s spin Grandpa around in the round chair really fast.’ It’s funny how my love deepened for my dad when he became a grandfather, the role he was born to play.”
Kaling — who is mom to daughter Katherine, 5, and son Spencer, 2 — continued: “I love him to the moon and back, which is what he says to my kids. Whoever it is for your family – husband, partner, grandparent, mom, wife, step-parent, nanny, sibling, old friend – I hope you have someone out there who shows up for you and your family! It is the great blessing of our life. Now I’m gonna cry. Okay! Love to everyone today! ❤️”
The caption was shared alongside a photo of Kaling’s father seemingly sleeping in a chair while both Katherine and Spencer were on either side of him. (The Why Not Me? author is the only child of Avu and the late Swati Chokalingam.)
The Sex Lives of College Girls creator has been notoriously private about the identity of her children’s father. She has explained that she wants to wait until her kids are “old enough to talk about it” with her before revealing the details to the world.
“I’m the only parent my kids have,” Kaling told Marie Claire in August 2022. “I think I err on the side of super cautious so that there’s less things that they can potentially be mad at me about down the line.”
She isn’t concerned by the constant fan speculation that B.J. Novak is the father of her kids. The Office alums dated for three years before calling it quits in 2007 and have since remained extremely close.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Kaling told the magazine. “He’s the godparent to both my kids — and they have such a great relationship — and so far [the rumors haven’t] affected my happiness at all, it hasn’t affected my kids or B.J. … If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it.”
