Mindy Kaling is always happy to take a photo with a fan, including Prince Harry!
In an Instagram post on Thursday, the 44-year-old alum of The Office shared a pic alongside the Duke of Sussex, 39, from a recent appearance they made at the Uplift conference in San Francisco.
The photo shows Kaling in an adorable cardigan alongside Prince Harry in a casual gray blazer, both smiling for the camera backstage at the event. In her caption, the six-time Emmy nominee used the rare opportunity to play it cool and refer to the British royal family as Meghan Markle's spouse.
"Met my friend's husband at a work event. Seemed pretty cool," Kaling captioned the pics.
Bringing up Prince Harry's 2023 bestselling autobiography, Spare, the Inside Out star continued, "Said he wrote a book. Gonna go check it out!"
In the comments, Kaling's friends and followers shared their shock, excitement and hilariously on-brand responses to the photo of the actress-writer alongside Prince Harry, with many of their replies alluding to how her iconic characters would react to this moment.
"I am not ok," responded Never Have I Ever star Poorna Jagannathan. Kaling served as writer and co-creator alongside Lang Fisher on the hit Netflix comedy, which ended with season 4 in 2023.
"Ohhh yeah I think I've heard about this guy! Is that Meghan Markle's husband?" one person joked.
"Mindy Lahiri would freak 😄," another commenter wrote, referencing her character from The Mindy Project.
"All I can think about is how Kelly Kapur would be meeting Harry! ❤️😂," a third added, referring to Kaling's character from The Office.
Mindy Kaling
While Kaling may have been star struck by the encounter, her caption did not appear to be a joke or an exaggeration as she has indeed become a friend of Markle, 42, over the years.
In September 2022, she appeared on Markle's Archetypes podcast to discuss their cultural backgrounds, the pressures they encountered throughout their lives to settle down and Kaling's life as a single mom. The Sex Lives of College Girls creator has two children, Kit, 6, and Spencer, 3.
"At no point could you say, 'Nope. My dream for the future is to be single.' The message, even at my feminist all-girls school, was as traditional as it gets: First comes love, then comes marriage," Markle said during the open conversation. "It’s no wonder that, in some circles, the single woman – this idea of being unmarried – still carries a stigma."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
"Growing up, I used to write in journals like, 'I'm going to be married to a guy named Josh and we're going to have five children and I'm gonna start having kids when I'm 24,'" Kaling told the Duchess of Sussex.
She continued, "But 24 came and went. No Josh. No marriage. No four kids. And I started as a writer on The Office when I was 24. … I was just so focused on keeping that job and earning money and earning a good reputation professionally. And so it just happened."
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