In the past, Eva Mendes has been notoriously private about her personal life, often choosing not to share the details of what is going on at home with the world. Now, she is being uncharacteristically candid, speaking to People about her free-spirited parenting style when it comes to her children with Ryan Gosling.
Mendes and Gosling fell in love while filming The Place Beyond the Pines, in 2011, and they’ve been together ever since. They are proud parents to Esmerelda Amada (5 years old) and Amada Lee (3 ½ years old), and the couple is taking a very hands-off approach at raising their daughters in order to let the girls be who they want to be.
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“They are so their own women already,” Mendes told the outlet of her children. “And it’s so beautiful to watch. I really feel like it’s my job to get out of their way.”
The girls are very in touch with their creative sides — one “likes to wear socks as sleeves” and “her underwear on her head,” Mendes told People — and their parents are more than happy to oblige their unique sense of imagination.
“[My job is to] protect them, of course, but to just let them be what they want to be,” she explained. “I try not to give my opinion too much on what they like.”
Mendes’ go-with-the-flow parenting could be due to the fact that she never imagined that she would be a mother to begin with. It was only after meeting Gosling that the actress even considered motherhood, and their relationship changed everything — even the trajectory of her career.
Since giving birth to Esmerelda in 2014, Mendes stepped away from Hollywood to channel her energy. These days, when she's not hanging out with her daughters, the star is building her beauty and fashion empire. Finding balance between work and home has admittedly been a struggle (mom guilt is real), but Mendes is committed to showing up for her kids.