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Eva Mendes rarely ever talks about Ryan Gosling directly in interviews. But for Women’s Health’s May issue, she made an exception. The actress and New York & Company designer spoke to the magazine about how Gosling changed her mind about parenthood. Mendes hadn’t pictured herself having children initially. “It was the furthest thing from my mind,” she started.
But then, “Ryan Gosling happened,” she said with a giggle. “I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have…not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.” Gosling and Mendes now have two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada, who are four and two years old, respectively.
Mendes spoke about how after she welcomed her first daughter, she was ready for a break from acting and Hollywood, where she worked for the two decades before. “I felt a lack of ambition, if I can be honest,” she said. “I feel more ambitious in the home right now than I do in the workplace.” But Women’s Health noted that Mendes will return to acting projects at some point, so she’s anything but retired.
Mendes also spoke about Gosling’s rare shoutout to her in his Golden Globes Best Actor award acceptance speech in 2017. He thanked his “lady” for raising their daughters and dedicated his award to Mendes’s late brother Juan Carlos Mendez.
Mendes hadn’t been at the show or even personally watching it; she had been with her daughters watching PBS Kids. But her sister called from the other room where the Golden Globes were on, so Mendes could come in and hear Gosling’s speech. “It was like a dream,” Mendes said of the speech. “But really, what I heard was that he said my brother’s name. It was the most beautiful gesture, and I had no idea Ryan was going to say it. Losing my brother was incredibly difficult.”