The Barbie to his Ken: Inside the adorable family life of Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes have one of the cutest but most private relationships in Hollywood. Some might easily forget they were together if you don’t follow her personality-packed Instagram. However, you couldn’t miss when Eva piped up to defend Ryan from all that backlash after he got a Best Actor Oscar nod for his scene-stealing turn as Ken in Barbie. Much of the hoo-haa came when Margot Robbie did not. However, enough of the old drama, and more about Eva and Ryan’s cute family together.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes met on the set of the movie The Place Beyond The Pines in 2011

The pair were both cast in the Derek Cianfrance crime drama, starring opposite each other as Romina and Luke, exes on the run in upstate New York. They made their red carpet debut as a couple at the Toronto Film Festival, and Ryan put down their on-screen chemistry to their on-screen work.

Speaking of getting to know his future wife at work, Ryan told Elle magazine in 2013: “I would like to say it’s our chemistry, but I think the reality is that it’s [director Derek Cianfrance’s] process. I think that chemistry is evident in other relationships in the movie as well, and the kind of environment that he puts you in evokes a kind of connection. I think we all have a chemistry with one another because we were the only actors in the vicinity, because everyone else was a real person from [Schenectady].”

They’ve since worked together, like when they both in the 2014 movie Lost River, and Ryan has gushed about how “helpful” she is to him in his work.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes have two adorable daughters together

Eva gave birth to their first child, Esmerelda, in September 2014, and then in April 2018 they welcomed their second little one, Amada. After becoming a mother, Eva opened up about how it wasn’t a job she ever wanted until she met Ryan.

“I was lucky enough to work my bum off for 20 years,” Eva told the radio show Fitzy and Wippa on Nova 96.9. “I never wanted babies before until I fell in love with Ryan, and it kind of worked out to where I was 40 and having my first baby.”

In 2019, Eva spoke again about motherhood, admitting that she had no idea it was “gonna really be a job” while on The Kelly Clarkson Show. She gave insight into her and Ryan’s intention to have a “very controlling” parenting style, adding: “I think what the term is—we’re always laughing at these terms – I think we would be ‘bulldozing parents’.”

Ryan has admitted to PEOPLE magazine that the girl’s obsession with the Mattel toy helped him prepare for his Academy Award-nominated turn as Ken as he “kept finding their Ken dolls discarded, so the whole idea that nobody plays with Ken is true,” before dubbing Esmerelda and Amada his  “coaches” when they came to visit him on the very pink set.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes like keeping their family as hidden as possible

Eva once told a fan via Instagram: “My man and my kids are private.” Despite this, Eva has dropped insights into their domestic life via the social media site and has even shared memes about her husband, like his hilarious award show reactions.

In a since-deleted post, she wrote in the caption: “I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids. I’ll talk about them of course, with limits, but I won’t post pictures of our daily life. Since my children are still so little and don’t understand what posting their image really means, I don’t have their consent. And I won’t post their image until they’re old enough to give me consent.”

Showing their girls progressive gender roles is really important to Eva and Ryan

They like to make sure the household chores are divided up equally. Ryan is apparently “an amazing chef and baker,” according to a chat she had with her Insta followers. Eva prefers to handle the housework, a task she has parlayed into her cleaning band Skura Style. She has spoken out about how she hopes to pass on the message that your gender need not define your role in keeping a happy home.

Eva told Forbes in 2022: “Hopefully it’s showing my girls that there are no gender-specific roles that one must take on and that we are partners in this and that we’re all partners in this—not just Ryan and I, but our children as well.”

In 2020, Eva admitted to a follower, who chided Ryan for not taking her out more, that she would “rather be with my man than anywhere else in the world.”

However, they often have sweet moments in public

One of these was during Ryan’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes when he paid tribute to both Eva and her late brother Juan Carlos Mendes, who passed away after battling throat cancer in 2016.

While getting his recognition for La La Land, he said: “You don’t get to be up here without standing on the shoulders of a mountain. 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.”

At the Barbie premiere last summer, he was spotted with an “E” pendant on his neck in the iconic font of the doll. When Entertainment Tonight asked what it stood for, he simply said: “Eva”.

Eva has also repaid the favour over the years like when he was named as the face of a Gucci campaign in October 2022. Sharing the shoot on her Instagram, she dubbed him her “My Magic Man.”

They got married in secret without much fuss

Eva and Ryan opted to keep their low-key thing going when they finally decided it was to make their arrangement legal. The rumours they finally gotten married when Eva posted a snap of her new ink on her wrist, which was the words “De Gosling”. There was speculation this was an homage to her Latinx cultural tradition not to drop your maiden name.

The rumours were confirmed by Eva herself while chatting to the Australian morning show Today when she referred to Ryan as her “husband”.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Margot Robbie has finally spoken about *that* Best Actress Oscar snub for Barbie

• Here’s the hilarious reason Ryan Gosling is always refusing to eat on camera

• Take this quiz and we’ll tell you which Ken from the Barbie film shares your Kenergy

Photo credit via Broadimage/Shutterstock