Mindy Kaling pulled back the curtain on her love life — but there’s nothing behind it.
“I don’t remember the last time I had a crush,” the “Office” alum told “Armchair Expert” listeners Monday. “I don’t have lust feelings.”
Kaling, 45, pointed out that she welcomed daughter Anne, 1, in February 2024, noting, “Maybe it’s connected to if you’ve had to pump milk for a baby. … Maybe you have to give yourself some time.”
While the actress is “at that age” to be in perimenopause, host Dax Shepard chimed in, “Most women who have just had a baby experience quite a decline [in libido].”
His co-host, Monica Padman, added that waiting until later in life to date and fantasizing about love “so much growing up” can continue into adulthood and “replace the real thing.”
Kaling agreed that the last time she was interested in someone, she did not “Google him to see if he was in between marriages” or “go to the premiere” of his next project.
She gushed over the A-lister in question, Hugh Grant, while praising the actor’s November 2024 “SmartLess” podcast interview.
“He was so funny,” she told Shepard and Padman of Grant, who has been married to Anna Eberstein since 2018.
“I was like, ‘I know you haven’t had this conversation before, but why is every anecdote you’re saying perfectly worded?’” she asked. “‘Great analogies, great callbacks to stories that you then call back later.’
“I was listening like, ‘I have a crush on you, Hugh Grant,’” Kaling continued. “Not that he would be interested. But I was satiated [just by listening].”
Elsewhere in the episode, the actress broke down the benefits of staying single, from having “extra bandwidth” as a working mom to never needing to “compromise at all.”
Kaling clarified that she is “open to” finding love but doesn’t “need” it.
“We all have those friends, male or female, where they don’t feel complete unless they have a partner. … I used to be that way,” she said.
“[Jennifer Lopez] has been in so many relationships in the time that I’ve been single,” the “Mindy Project” alum continued. “She’s a romantic. … It fuels her.”
Kaling started a family on her own in 2017 when daughter Katherine, now 7, arrived, followed by son Spencer, now 4, in 2020.
The three-time mom credited “A Wrinkle in Time” co-star Reese Witherspoon with convincing her to have kids when she did.
“[Parenthood] scared me for the longest time,” Kaling explained. “She was like, ‘Do this. Do not wait until it’s too late.’ … In her trailer in a field in New Zealand, she said, ‘If you want this, you have to do it now.’”
In Monday’s episode, the Emmy nominee did not address rampant rumors that longtime friend — and ex-boyfriend — B.J. Novak is the father of her children, which she once insisted to Marie Claire does not “bother” or “affect” her.
The 45-year-old, notably, is the godfather of Kaling’s children, and she referred to him as an “integral part” of her family at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony last month.
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