Mindy Kaling announces secret birth of daughter Anne on 45th birthday: 'The best birthday present'

The Mindy Project star kept her pregnancy a secret for months


Mindy Kaling attends the Ralph Lauren fashion show during New York Fashion Week on September 08, 2023 in New York City.© Getty Images
June 24, 2024

Congratulations are in order for Mindy Kaling! On her 45th birthday, the actress announced on social media that she'd quietly welcomed a third child.

She shared photos on Instagram of the pregnancy she'd managed to hide, and photos of her new baby daughter, Anne, born in February. Anne joins Mindy's two other children, Katharine and Spencer.

"In late February I gave birth to my daughter, Anne," Mindy penned. "She's the best birthday present I could've ever imagined." 

"When things are hard, whenever I veer towards cynicism, my three kids are such a great reminder of the pure joy in my life. I'm so lucky I live in a place where I could do this by myself, on my own timeline. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!"

The comedian and writer welcomed her two older children, six-year-old Katharine "Kit" and three-year-old Spencer, quietly as well, and has kept their paternity hidden (as she's done with Anne).

In a previous interview with Bruce Bozzi for his podcast Table for Two, she talked about her burning desire to have children after her mother passed away in 2012.

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Mindy's children Kit and Spencer dote over their new sibling, Anne

"I feel blessed because equal to my desire to find a man, I wanted to have children," she shared. "And that intensified when my mother died. I didn't want to be on my deathbed…and not have anybody around my bed. I wanted there to be kids and I wanted there to be grandkids."

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She added: "The thing that was the most important thing to me was this relationship to these phantom children that I didn't have."

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Mindy Kaling joined in the hospital after giving birth by her children Spencer and Kit

"I pictured I would live in New York City and they would come visit me to go see plays together and we would have lunch at the Polo Lounge for dinner. They would hang out with me in my sixties and seventies."

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On her birthday last year, she emphasized her love for motherhood in an Instagram tribute post to her two children as well. "I was never a 'kid' person. When my mom passed though, it just clicked in me: I wanted kids with such intense certainty. I bet some of you can relate."

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Mindy Kaling displays her baby bump from her third pregnancy with Anne, which she'd kept a secret

"Now I'm just trying to be present for them (hard for me! I'm impatient!), being up for anything (again hard for me, I am not whimsical!), and stay healthy for these two guys (ALSO hard! I just want to eat cheesesteaks every meal in front of the TV) for until I'm an old gray skeleton they're like 'mom, you gotta go'."

MORE: Mindy Kaling shares very rare photos of daughter Kit — and she's so grown up

She sweetly concluded: "Man, there are ups and downs in this life!! But my ups seem to be the most important ones right now. Thanks for my birthday love."

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"When my mom passed though, it just clicked in me: I wanted kids with such intense certainty."

Back in 2020, Mindy told Elle that keeping Spencer's pregnancy a secret in 2020 wasn't too hard. "Shot myself from the waist up and then also wore baggy things," the Sex Lives of College Girls creator explained. "I never got super huge, so it was a little bit easier."

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