Three-time Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling shares two children with his partner Eva Mendes -- daughters Esmeralda and Amada.
Mendes gave a peek into how she and Gosling raise their daughters in an Oct. 17 interview with The Sunday Times, revealing their daughters are home schooled and are kept away from smartphones and social media.
"Putting my kid on the internet and being like, ‘Oh, search something,’ that to me is equivalent to telling her, ‘Oh, just go down the street in the middle of the night. You’ll be fine,’” Mendes said. “I know that sounds extreme, but that’s what I feel.”
Mendes also shared how she is conscious of raising her children to appreciate hard work and show them that, "working is cool."
“I explain to them what I didn’t have, what Ryan didn’t have when he was little, how hard we had to fight, the dark days of being paycheck to paycheck, and this and that, but they’ll never really know unless they experience that,” she said. “The next best thing [to gain perspective], according to Dr. Amen [a parenting book author], is to really have them work on their self-esteem for themselves by doing things like working in the house.”
In the last decade, Gosling has returned to acting after taking a break from his Hollywood career to be with his family.
"The Fall Guy" star told Men's Health in April that Mendes and their daughters guide him.
"It always comes back to family first," Gosling said. "I don't think I'll regret anything professionally, but I do think when it comes to Eva and the girls, they come first."
Get to know Gosling's family below.
Eva Mendes
Gosling and Mendes starred together as Luke Glanton and Romina, parents of a young son, in the 2012 crime drama "The Place Beyond the Pines," a pivotal project for the two actors.
"After I met Eva, I realized that I just didn't want to have kids without her," Gosling told GQ in May 2023. "And 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. I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have."
In a 2019 interview with Women's Health, Mendes, also a fashion designer, said meeting Gosling shaped her thoughts on parenthood and starting a family as well.
"Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him," Mendes said. "Then it made sense for me to have … not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him."
The couple tend to be private when it comes to their children and Mendes said that even though she and Gosling have high-profile jobs as actors, they try not to involve their kids in their professions.
"I'm just Mom," Mendes told Women's Health. "And I'm more than happy to just be Mom."
In September 2024, Mendes released a children's book in English and Spanish, titled "Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries." Mendes said the book was inspired by her daughters and told "Good Morning America" the girls "love" the book.
"They're very harsh critics, though," Mendes said. "But the other day ... my little girl, who just turned 10, was having a hard time and I swear to you, I walk into her room, she's reading the book. And I'm like, crying mom. But anyway, that really got to me."
Esmeralda Amada
Mendes and Gosling welcomed their eldest daughter Esmeralda in 2014.
In a 2018 interview with "Good Morning America," Mendes said she loved watching her then 4-year-old daughter express herself through fashion.
"She dresses herself and comes up with some pretty interesting things, like she'll just do the one-sleeve [on her pajamas] and we're like, 'Amazing,'" Mendes said. "Just to see what they do naturally is exciting because I'm just mom when I'm with them."
At the 2024 Oscars, Gosling took the stage for a performance of "I'm Just Ken" from the movie "Barbie," and later credited Esmeralda and her sister Amada with helping him ahead of the show.
"They are such a huge part of this for me. It was my girls' interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end," Gosling told People in March.
Amada Lee
The couple welcomed their second daughter Amada in 2016.
Gosling told Ellen DeGeneres in a 2016 interview that Amada means "beloved" in Spanish.
Although Mendes is active online, she and Gosling choose not to share photos of their daughters on social media.
"I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids," Mendes wrote to a fan on social media in 2020. "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," Mendes added. "And I won't post their image until they're old enough to give me consent."
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