Mindy Kaling likes to keep her romantic life "a little bit more mysterious".

The 'Mindy Project' star - who is expecting her first child - has confessed she prefers to keep her personal life out of the spotlight.

Speaking in the September edition of American Way, she said: "My professional life is the only thing that I feel I have a lot of control over - romantic stuff is a little bit more mysterious. I think a lot of women respond to that."

Meanwhile, Mindy - who has not yet revealed the identity of the baby's father - previously confirmed her pregnancy, admitting she has no idea what to expect.

She said: "It's so unknown to me. I have a lot of control over a lot of aspects of my life, and this is one where I'm like, 'OK, it's out of my hands,' which is kind of a fun feeling.

"My mom was incredibly fierce and so devoted to us, just loved us and really wanted us to be happy no matter what we did. My career choice was not something that she was familiar with and she was just so supportive of that. And if I could give that to my child, just that open-mindedness, I'd be so happy ...

"It's so easy to criticise parenting until you're a parent, so one of the nice things about becoming a parent is that I'll be able to openly criticise other parenting because I will have a child."

And Mindy previously revealed that she has always wanted to have children.

She said: "I think I've decided that unlike everything else in my life, I'm going to be fast and loose about kids. I'm going to not actively plan, but if it happens, it would happen.

"I'm not cavalier about who I would have a kid with. But the thing I ask every parent that I really admire, the one comment they all have is that they wish they had kids earlier."