Despite the fact Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak grew up 10 minutes away from each other in Massachusetts, the pair didn’t meet until they began working together on The Office in 2005.
They soon hit it off and began sort of dating. We say “sort of” because no one really knew what they were doing.
Speaking to Vulture in 2012, Novak said, “No one, including us, ever really knew, ‘Is this dating? Is this not dating?’
“We were never really dating, we were never really not dating. We didn’t know. No one knew. All you’d know for sure as that you’d always find one of us next to the other, even if we weren’t getting along.”
Kaling, however, believed they “kind of fell in love” while working in the writers’ room, saying they “dated on and off for a couple of years, and now we are just, like, best friends.”
It seems as though their relationship inspired Kelly and Ryan’s relationship on The Office because of “an observation from the writers’ room that Mindy and I were extremely close and constantly fighting.”
The pair seem to have done what not many other people have succeeded in doing – having a workplace romance, a workplace breakup and enjoying a healthy friendship afterward.
Even nowadays, they still go as each other’s plus-ones to events, BJ recently accompanied Mindy to the premiere of her film Late Night.
Mindy has previously admitted to Howard Stern that if Novak had asked her to marry him, she would have said yes, adding, “I was 24… If anyone had asked me to marry me, I would’ve said yes.”
However, BJ says his reasons for remaining friends with Kaling is simple, telling Entertainment Weekly, “The main reason I’m reluctant to get married to Mindy is that every single person in our lives and Twitter feeds would say, ‘I knew it.’ I just couldn’t f—ing deal with that. But we know. We know what’s there.”
Um, OK, we get it, he doesn’t want everyone saying ‘told you so!’, but what about the fans who wouldn’t be like that and would just be so excited for them and only want to see them happy (together).
What about us, BJ?!
Now, BJ plays perhaps a larger role in Mindy’s life, as her daughter Katherine’s godfather.
Speaking with CBS Sunday Morning, Mindy said, “I like when people think it’s more romantic or sparkly or interesting than it is.”
“He’s really part of my family now, which is great. Even though that’s less of a sexy characterization of our relationship, I think it’s a deeper and a closer one. We do spend a lot of time together and it’s a great blessing in my life.”
So, that’s nice, I guess.