Mindy Kaling Shares Rare Photo With Daughter Katherine in Birthday Post

Mindy Kaling celebrated her birthday in a “very special” way, giving fans a rare peek at 2-year-old daughter Katherine as she shared their plans for the day on social media. The Mindy Project star, who turned 41 Thursday, kicked off her day with breakfast at home, with Katherine leading her mom by the hand to the decorated outdoor table at their home.

“A very special birthday morning breakfast,” Kaling captioned her pic on Thursday. This marks just one of a few photos Kaling has shared of her daughter since her birth, as the actress is incredibly private about Katherine and never shares photos of her face with the public. The last photo she posted of Katherine was a Mother’s Day snap of the little girl running away from the camera towards her mom, clad in a blue patterned dress and rocking adorable pigtails.

“Sending a little extra love today to all of the moms, and to anyone who may be missing theirs right now,” she captioned the photo, adding that through being a mother herself, she has been able to ” experience memories” with her own mom.

Kaling explained the reason she had not identified publicly the identity of Katherine’s father in an interview with The New York Times Magazine last year. “My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it,” The Office actress and writer said at the time. “I think people are often surprised that for someone who seems as open as I am on social media and who writes things that seem drawn from my life, I find that stuff [her relationship with Katherine] really private.”

That doesn’t mean she hasn’t been open about her experience as a mother, telling the magazine she was “surprised” at how much she loved having a child. “I did not think I had a big maternal instinct,” she admitted. “I’m very impatient, and having a baby requires an amount of patience that I was worried about.”

What changed things, she added was the familial bond with Katherine. “But they don’t tell you that the thing will look so much like you, and do things that are so sweet and adorable, that you’ll naturally not have the same impatience that you would have with a stranger or someone who works for you,” she explained.