Mindy Kaling shuts down question about her weight loss because ‘people take it so personally’

The actor lost a significant amount of weight in the last year, prompting speculation from fans

Mindy Kaling has declined to answer a question about her weight loss and “wellness journey” after losing a significant amount of weight in the last year.

The Mindy Project star, 44, was asked in an interview with Allure Magazine about what she would say to fans who “feel like they’ve lost an ally” because of the change in her physical appearance.

It comes after fans speculated that the actor and producer had used Ozempic, a diabetes drug that has been hailed by celebrities and influencers for its weight loss side effect.

Kaling told the magazine that it isn’t “super exciting for me to talk about my body and how it’s analysed”.

Declining to “get into it”, she added that talking about her weight loss tends to “take over the conversation unfortunately”, adding: “People take it so personally.”

The mother-of-two has previously divulged some details about how she lost weight, but has not addressed speculation that she used any sort of medication to do so.

The Independent has contacted a representative of Kaling for comment.

In April 2022, she told Entertainment Tonight: “I eat what I like to eat. If I do any kind of restrictive diet, it never really works for me. I just eat less of it.

“I wish there was something more juicy or dynamic about the way that I’ve lost a little bit of weight, but that’s the way I’ve done it.”

Fans began taking notice of Kaling’s weight loss in December 2022, when she shared a photograph of herself wearing a white dress for a holiday party.

She wrote in the caption: “I never wear winter white! I was always so worried about it not being flattering and also about dropping food on it.”

(Ashley Landis/Invision/AP)

Last August, Kaling recalled being labelled “unattractive” by the media while starring in The Mindy Project from 2012 to 2017.

She opened up about the criticism, saying: “The amount of articles that were like, ‘It’s so good for a culture that this unattractive woman is finally on camera’.

“I didn’t know I was so unattractive until I was the star of my own show. So not having to see those things, that’s wonderful.”

Kaling has two children, Katherine and Spencer, who were born in 2017 and 2020 respectively. She keeps them out of the spotlight and has not publicly revealed who their father is.

BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling (Getty Images)

However, she reflected on them not growing up with a father figure in an interview with the Duchess of Sussex on the latter’s short-lived Spotify podcast, Archetypes.

Kaling told Meghan Markle last year: “I would love for my… I have such a great relationship with my dad. You know, he is, we’re so different from each other. But he is just like, he is everything to me.

“I do know that that would be so valuable for my kids, you know, that they have a dad. It wasn’t our lot, you know, our family’s lot in life. And I do think about it with wistfulness and then also fear, like, what will they think when they get older about that?”

It was previously speculated that Kaling’s The Office co-star and long-time friend BJ Novak could be the father of her children. However, neither Kaling nor Novak have confirmed this.

Addressing the rumours, Kaling said that they don’t “bother” her and said that Novak is “godparent to both my kids”.

“It hasn’t affected my happiness at all, it hasn’t affected my kids or BJ. If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it.”