Ryan Gosling & Eva Mendes: All About Their Two Daughters

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are living life as a couple and raising their kids together. They met while filming 'The Place Beyond the Pines' in 2011 and now have two daughters: Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 7. Their on-screen chemistry in the movie inspired Gosling to start a family with Mendes.

Gosling had a change of heart about starting a family after working with Mendes on the 2012 film. "I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn’t want to have kids without her," Ryan revealed in a 2023 interview with 'GQ'. He added, "There were moments on 'The Place Beyond the Pines' where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore." While they keep their personal lives private, especially when it comes to their daughters, Gosling and Mendes are devoted parents.

Gosling and Mendes welcomed their first child, Esmeralda Amada, in Santa Monica, California, on Sept. 12, 2014. The couple kept the pregnancy under wraps, with a source revealing to 'PEOPLE' that Mendes preferred to limit information to close friends and family.
Upon Esmeralda's arrival, both parents were smitten, with an insider sharing, "Ryan is madly in love with the baby," while Mendes "is absolutely in heaven being a mom.

One month before Mendes had her second child, the public learned about her pregnancy. Mendes and Gosling welcomed their second daughter, Amada Lee, on April 29, 2016. Amada is named after Mendes' grandmother and means "beloved" in Spanish.

Mendes temporarily stepped back from acting to focus on being a stay-at-home mom, which she found to be "way harder" than her work in Hollywood.

While Mendes focused on family, Gosling continued his career. A few years later, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in 'La La Land'. During his acceptance speech, he expressed gratitude to Mendes and their daughters, saying, "While I was singing and dancing and playing piano...my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer."

Eva Mendes has expressed admiration for her children's imagination and freedom. She recalled moments when they wanted to wear unconventional outfits, like socks on their hands or mixing Halloween costumes with pajama pants and headbands.

Mendes said that she and Ryan Gosling have similar parenting styles, describing themselves as "controlling" parents. She explained this on The Kelly Clarkson Show when Amada was 3 years old, saying, "We have to be on top of them every second ... The stakes are really high, so yeah, I'm a helicopter parent. And then I heard the bulldozing and I'm like, 'Ooh, yeah, I'm probably a bulldozing parent too.'"

In 2020, Eva expressed her stance on sharing photos of her kids on Instagram due to their young age and lack of consent. A source told 'PEOPLE' in August 2023 that Ryan and Eva are hands-on parents who prioritize family time when not working. Gosling reiterated this sentiment in a February 2024 interview with Variety, emphasizing the importance of cherishing moments with his daughters.