BJ Novak Finally Shed Some Light on His Former ’Tumultuous’ & ‘Romantic’ Relationship With Mindy Kaling

If you were ever a fan of The Office, The Mindy Project, or just BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling in general, you know that the two have one of Hollywood’s most complicated relationships. From co-workers to dating to best friends (Novak is also her daughter’s godfather), Novak and Kaling have held every title in the book in the many decades they’ve known each other. Though their current status is often still up for debate, Novak gave fans a glimpse of their incredible connection as he presented the Norman Lear Prize for Achievement in Television to her at the Producers Guild Awards.

“I first met Mindy when we were both 25 and were both hired to write on what was then known as the ill-fated American version of The Office,” the Vengeance director began. “The first thing I noticed about Mindy in that writers’ room is she cared so much about everything… and it went beyond the show, her opinions were passionate and unstoppable and she cared about all the issues of the day.”

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Novak continued, giving a glimpse of their romance that started in The Office‘s writers’ room. “We were in love with each other, and we were reckless idiots.”

“The two of us would argue about all of these things forever, grinding the writers’ room to a halt until we got too upset and we’d go to our respective offices and slam the door where we would continue arguing over AOL Instant Messenger,” Novak recalled. “It was 2005. My screen name was @DaxSucks because I imagined myself in a rivalry with actor Dax Shepard. Hers was even stupider: @Fairfax1240 because that was her home address.”

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Novak remembered that soon everyone caught on to their in-office romance. “And when the producers realized that our relationship as co-writers had jumped every conceivable boundary and become a tumultuous, romantic, toxic, boundary-less mess, they pulled us aside and said, ‘Hey, you should have scenes together too.'” For any non-The Office fans out there, Kaling and Novak’s characters Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard began dating on the show.

“We made it work or didn’t work, we made it through,” he added.

Following their work on the hit sitcom, Kaling went on to write, produce, and star in The Mindy Project. Novak described Kaling’s character on the show as a “funny and fiery OB-GYN in New York balancing work with her many terrible and toxic relationships with men who all looked weirdly like me.” Shots were fired!

Novak went on to sing Kaling many other praises and concluded, “she cares so much about everything and I care so much about her.” Though we understand that these two haven’t been officially together for many years now, can we talk about how sweet this speech was? Whether they like it or not, they’re definitely one of our favorite “ship” couples of all time!

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples who met on set.

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