“Snake soup” for life! Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak have one of the most enviable friendships in Hollywood – and a bond that continues to grow stronger over the years.
Comedians met while writing for Office in the early 2000s, and immediately felt a connection that was mirrored in their characters, Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard. “We became friends when we were super young, and also because we worked sometimes 16 hours a day Officeand we did that for eight years,” Kaling recalled of their friendship when they appeared at BookCon in 2015. “It was like going to college twice together.”
While the pair quickly struck up a romance in the early years of the NBC comedy, they quickly realized they would remain platonic. Despite insisting for years that they were just friends, he kept asking questions about their relationship status.
“When we’re dating someone, I think there’s a time when that person is very skeptical about our friendship,” Novak said in a 2013 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “‘Everyone thinks you might be a couple, and I don’t want to get in the way. Are you sure you’re not dating? Are you sure you’re not dating?’ It’s normal to have a platonic best friend that gets a little weird when you start dating other people.
Although the romantic aspect of their relationship was short-lived, the two TV writers were almost inseparable for more than a decade. After welcoming her first child, Katherine, in December 2017, Kaling admitted that she understood the confusion surrounding her relationship with Novak.
“If I was outside looking at it, I would think the same thing,” he said Good housekeeping in May 2019. “But actually BJ is more like family now than platonic friends. He’s my son’s godfather, he comes, like once a week. Sometimes he’ll come just to hang out with him.”
After playing a central role in each other’s lives for so long, Kaling couldn’t imagine a future without them Inglourious Basterds actor.
“But if you’ve known someone as long as I’ve known them — the time we met, it’s like 24,” she told the publication. “Now, we’re both almost 40. It’s been a long time since he’s really been a part of my family.”
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Scroll down to relive the former costars’ unbreakable bond over the years!