A-list actor and Hollywood stud Ryan Gosling is making waves this award season, racking up nods for his hilarious and charming portrayal of Ken in the hit blockbuster "Barbie" (2023).
After being nominated for the Critics Choice Award and the Golden Globe for the role (among many others), Gosling may pick up the Oscar for his Ken in March.
Sporting the iconic doll's platinum blonde hair, Gosling's character spends most of the feminist comedy trying to find himself in a world that is built around his female counterpart. He ends up chasing Barbie (Margot Robbie) into the real world, convinced he serves no purpose without her. Though, unfortunately for him - spoiler alert! - Ken does not end up with Barbie in the film.
However, in reality, Gosling got his dream life and locked down his dream Barbie - actress, model, and designer Eva Mendes.
Though the pair keep their relationship and their two daughters' lives out of the public eye, the two are clearly madly in love and having a great time raising their girls. The couple rarely posts pictures together and don't even walk red carpets arm-in-arm.
Mendes shared on social media in 2020 with her followers why Gosling doesn't make many appearances on her accounts:
"I don't talk about Ryan and all the wonderful things he does as a father because I keep that part private," she wrote. "I feel it's best that I continue to disclose what I'm comfortable with but not involve him or my kids too much. It's not about being cagey or weird, it's just about staying private in a public space."
Though they keep their lives on the down low, the couple has shared enough tidbits with the media over the years that prove their love for each other is strong. Here's everything we know about Gosling's and Mendes' decade-long romance:
Pretending to Be a Family
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Though the two had known each other as friends for years, things started to heat up between them when they became co-stars on the crime thriller "The Place Beyond the Pines" (2012).
In the film, Gosling plays a struggling man who has to resort to criminal activities to provide for his ex, played by Mendes, and their newborn child.
In his May 2023 cover, Gosling told GQ that filming the movie made him think about having a real family with Mendes.
"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," Gosling said. "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."
Soon after filming wrapped in 2011, dating rumors started to swirl after Mendes and Gosling were spotted sharing a kiss at Disneyland in Paris and then running errands in Hollywood.
"Like a dating couple, they always walked very closely, holding hands and their arms touching side-by-side," an eyewitness told People at the time.
During the holiday season that year, the new couple shared the screen again in an episode of Funny or Die's "Drunk History Christmas." Gosling played an inebriated narrator of "The Night Before Christmas" poem while Mendes played his sleeping wife.
In September 2012, the couple actually walked the red carpet together promoting "The Place Beyond the Pines" at the International Film Festival - though only as co-stars. They weren't publicly speaking about their rumored romance, and Mendes told Kelly Clarkson on her talk show in 2019 that they were struggling to stay professional.
"That's literally me going, 'I'm not in love with him. What? I'm not in love,'" Mendes said. "Because we were trying to be very professional."
A few years later, the twosome teamed up again on the thriller fantasy film "Lost River" (2014), which was Gosling's directorial debut and starred Mendes.
The "Blue Valentine" (2010) actor told the Daily Telegraph in 2015 that working with Mendes heightened the level of respect between them and that she also helped him bring the film to life.
"They know what is at stake for you personally, and all the work that's gone into getting there," Gosling said. "She hates credit and she'll even be mad that I'm giving her that credit. But she was very helpful in so many ways."
After working together and being together for several years, Gosling told Hello Magazine in 2015: "I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with," he said, adding the only quality he looks for in a woman is "that she's Eva Mendes. There's nothing else I'm looking for."
How Many Children Do Gosling and Mendes Have?
Photo by Sonia Recchia/Getty Images
Both Gosling and Mendes said they never thought they'd be parents until they met each other.
The "Hitch" (2005) actress said she never actually wanted children until Gosling came into her life.
"I was lucky enough to work my bum off for 20 years," Mendes told People. "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."
And Gosling told GQ in 2023 that he never imagined himself as a father until Mendes told him she was pregnant.
"I would never want to go back, you know?" he said. "I'm glad I didn't have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself."
Around three years after they started dating, the Hollywood A-listers welcomed their first child, Esmeralda Amada, into the world on September 12, 2014.
That year, Mendes decided to take a break from her on-screen career to dedicate her time to being a parent, which she says took more skills than she realized.
"Nobody can prep you and nobody told me it was really going to be a job and job that I needed an incredible amount of skill for in different areas. A chauffeur, a cook, a personal assistant to an abusive boss," she joked to Kelly Clarkson. "The hardest part is the amount of snacks I have to carry with me all day long."
But Mendes must be doing something right. Gosling told GQ in 2016: "Eva's the dream mother, and they're dream babies, and it's like a dream that I'm having right now. I'm dreaming it all."
But the "Other Guys" (2010) actress said on Instagram that there's one household chore she leaves to Gosling: cooking.
"Ryan is an amazing chef AND baker," she wrote. "I'm not sure what I do is cooking. It's more like steaming veggies and juicing and making rice."
Two years later, Mendes gave birth to their second daughter, Amada Lee, on April 29, 2016, who is named after Mendes' grandmother.
Despite Mendes taking a break from the screen, she has a clothing line with New York & Company (among other pursuits) and Gosling is still a consistent staple in Hollywood. With all the travel and work between the couple, Mendes told the Daily Telegraph in 2022 that their children are homeschooled so the whole family can stay together.
"We're lucky enough to have someone we travel with that can continue their education at this point, and what we do is we try to incorporate the city we're in as much as possible," she said.
Despite all the chaos that comes with parenting, Mendes says she wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's so fun and beautiful and maddening," she said to Access Daily in 2019. "It's so hard, of course, but it's that that feeling of ending your day and putting them to bed and Ryan and I look at each other like, 'We did it, we came out relatively unscathed.'"
For Gosling, he told GQ in 2023 that he'd never want to do this without Mendes.
"I just lean on Eva. She knows what's important, always. She just somehow knows," he said. "So if ever I'm in my head about it, I just ask her."
Are Gosling and Mendes Married?
Instagram/evamendes
Though Gosling and Mendes have been together for more than a decade, they've never actually confirmed if they're married or not.
In November 2022, Mendes hinted that the pair may have traded nuptials when she posted on Instagram showing off a wrist tattoo that says 'de Gosling.' In Spanish, that means 'of Gosling,' which can signify unifying a woman's last name with her husband after marriage.
Only a few days later, Mendes was promoting her charity work in Australia when she referred to Gosling as her husband for the first time publicly: "Everyone is so welcoming here and my husband Ryan is here, and we are having the best time," she said.
But later on the same trip, the "Fast & Furious" alum refused to confirm their marital status when asked about the rumors in a separate interview.
"I got it years ago, but I posted a picture and I've gotten a lot of funny questions," she said about her wrist tattoo, adding, "Who says we weren't [married] already? I like to keep it all mysterious. I'm a very mysterious woman."
Whether they're officially married or not, the couple are clearly madly in love with each other and adoring parents to their two girls.
The Most Supportive Couple
Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Despite their insanely busy lives, Gosling and Mendes always find time and energy to support each other.
When accepting the Golden Globe for his leading role in the musical "La La Land" (2016), Gosling praised Mendes for holding their lives together while he filmed the movie.
"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 with his battle with cancer," he said. Gosling dedicated that win to Mendes' brother, Juan Carolos Mendes, who died the previous April.
In January 2024, Gosling was honored with the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. During his acceptance speech, he didn't shy away from sharing how much he appreciates his family.
"I for one have been so lucky. Most importantly, I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes, and have two dream children," the actor said. "I dreamed of one day making movies, and now, movies have made my life a dream."
As Gosling has promoted his incredible role as Ken in the "Barbie" film, Mendes has proven she's his number one fan and biggest cheerleader.
After a first look of the actor as the doll in the film went viral, Mendes started a hashtag #ThatsMyKen to combat public criticism that Gosling looked too old to be Ken.
Mendes told "The Talk" in June 2022 that she loved the photo: "It's a funny photo and he's trying to be funny, so it worked on all levels," she said. "But when I saw it, when he sent it to me from work, I was like, 'Can I please have that underwear? Please, I never ask for anything.' "
She also wrote on Instagram around the film's premiere: "Mi Hombre. Mi Vida...To say he's the greatest actor I've ever worked with is an understatement."
