Mindy Kaling Says Fans Take Her Weight Loss ‘Personally’

Mindy Kaling may have been open about her weight loss — but that doesn’t mean she’s down for the public discourse about it.

“It’s not super exciting for me to talk about my body and how it’s analyzed,” Kaling, 44, told Allure in an interview published on Tuesday, July 18.

The magazine asked for her response to some fans feeling like they’ve “lost” a body positive ally while Kaling has been on her weight loss journey. “So I think I’m just not going to get into it because it takes over the conversation unfortunately and people take it so personally,” she explained.

Last month, Kaling — who is the mom of daughter Katherine, 5, and son Spencer, 2 — opened up about wanting to be healthy for her children, no matter how “hard” it is for her.

“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,’” the actress captioned an Instagram photo with her kids at the time. “My doctor told me that this year I was the healthiest I’ve been in years. That’s a pretty damn good gift, right?”

One year prior, she told Byrdie that it’s imperative to “live a long time because I’m a single mom.”

Despite speculation about how she lost the weight, Kaling told Entertainment Tonight in 2022 that she shed pounds due to old-fashioned exercise and healthy eating.

“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,” she shared, giving a little more insight into her workout routine in a conversation with Self that same year, revealing that she does everything from elliptical sessions to weight training to yoga. She’s also a fan of hitting those cardio workouts by walking, running and hiking.

Kaling is celebrating the newfound comfort in her skin with the launch of her own Andie swimsuit collaboration, which debuted in May — as well as her partnership with Lion Pose, a new skincare line for people of color.

For the Never Have I Ever creator, “I’ve always struggled with hyperpigmentation and I’m always trying to find products that help with my acne scars and dark spots, but that don’t also change my skin tone,” she told Allure about why she decided to become an ambassador for and investor in the brand. “I feel incredibly lucky that I’m someone who’s celebrated for my dark brown skin. And I did not want to change that.”