Ryan Gosling shares two children with his longtime partner, actress Eva Mendes.The couple\u2019s older daughter, Esmeralda Amada Gosling, arrived in 2014.The couple welcomed their younger daughter, Amada Lee Gosling, in 2016.<\/p>\n
While Ryan Gosling has played more memorable roles than you could count on one hand, he\u2019ll always be most proud of being a dad. The Project Hail Mary star shares two daughters with longtime partner Eva Mendes<\/a>: Esmeralda Amada Gosling, born in 2014, and Amada Lee Gosling, born in 2016.\n<\/p>\n Before they were a real-life family, Gosling, 45, and Mendes, 52, played a fictional one in the 2012 crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines. Their couple casting would prove to be kismet, the Canadian actor told GQ<\/a> in 2023. “I wasn\u2019t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn\u2019t want to have kids without her,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were moments on [set] where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn\u2019t really want it to be pretend anymore. I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling attend “The Place Beyond The Pines” premiere in 2012.<\/p>\n Sonia Recchia\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Mendes echoed her partner\u2019s sentiment in a 2019 interview with Women\u2019s Health<\/a>. Asked what happened to change her mind about becoming a mother, the 2 Fast 2 Furious star said, \u201cRyan Gosling<\/a> happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have\u2026not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The private couple<\/a> are raising Esmeralda and Amada out of the spotlight, intentionally making the choice not to post photos of their children on social media. Still, they have made a few comments about parenting and making memories with their kids in interviews over the years. Ahead, here\u2019s everything Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes have shared about their two kids.\n<\/p>\n Esmeralda Amada Gosling <\/p>\n Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes at Tao Restaurant in NYC in September 2017.<\/p>\n Robert Kamau\/GC Images<\/p>\n Gosling and Mendes welcomed their first child, Esmeralda Amada, on September 12, 2014. She was born in Santa Monica, California.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Mendes chose the name Esmeralda after the character in the classic Victor Hugo novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, per ABC News<\/a>. Her daughter\u2019s middle name is a tribute to her grandmother and means \u201cbeloved\u201d in Spanish, she revealed in the same Violet Grey<\/a> interview.\n<\/p>\n The actress has expressed gratitude that the couple started a family later in life, telling People<\/a> she didn\u2019t feel ready for kids<\/a> in her 20s. “When I was 40, it was a big deal for people when I was pregnant, and it wasn’t for me,\u201d Mendes told the magazine for its 2024 \u2018Beautiful\u2019 issue. \u201cAnd then I was 42 and I was pregnant with my second one and people were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to be so tired. That’s why people have kids in their 20s.’ I was like, that’s the most sorry, asinine thing I’ve ever heard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Eva Mendes visiting Ronald McDonald House in Sydney in November 2022.<\/p>\n Tim Hunter \/ Newspix via Getty Images<\/p>\n Mendes got a special shoutout from Gosling when he accepted a Golden Globe for his performance in La La Land in 2017\u2014as he highlighted how it couldn\u2019t have happened without her stepping up for their kids. “While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” he said. “Sweetheart, thank you. To my daughters, Amada and Esmeralda, I love you.” Gosling dedicated the award to Mendes\u2019 late brother, Carlos Mendez.<\/p>\n In March 2024, Mendes similarly thanked her partner in an Instagram post<\/a> for \u201cholding down the fort at home\u201d with their girls while she \u201clive[d] the Dolce Evita for a couple days\u201d\u2014aka attending a glamorous Dolce & Gabbana event. Her accompanying Instagram Reel sees her strutting down a wood-panelled hallway in a chic black ensemble<\/a>, covered with a floaty sheer robe.\n<\/p>\n While she continues to do modeling and other business ventures, Mendes stepped away from acting<\/a> to focus on being a mom to Esmeralda and Amada. “It was like a no-brainer,” she said of the decision in a March 2024 appearance<\/a> on the Today show. “[I was like], I’m so lucky if I could have this time with my children.”\n<\/p>\n Ryan Gosling at the 96th Annual Academy Awards in March 2024.<\/p>\n Mike Coppola\/Getty Images<\/p>\n As Esmeralda and her sister have grown up, they\u2019ve enjoyed a few public outings with their parents\u2014like attending the 2024 Paris Olympics<\/a> together\u2014but Gosling and Mendes prefer to keep their daughters out of the spotlight. The actors have chosen not to post photos of Esmeralda and Amada on social media until the girls are old enough to make an informed decision about what\u2019s shared.\n<\/p>\n \u201cSince my children are still so little and don\u2019t understand what posting their image really means, I don\u2019t have their consent. And I won\u2019t post their image until they\u2019re old enough to give me consent,\u201d Mendes wrote in an Instagram comment in 2020, per People<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n With Esmeralda fast approaching her teen years, the longtime couple are focused on soaking up each moment<\/a> with their kids. \u201cI know these moments are fleeting. I just want to be with them. Whatever I\u2019m doing, as long as I\u2019m with them and Ryan, of course, that\u2019s where I\u2019m happiest,\u201d Mendes told New Beauty<\/a> in June 2025.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Recently, Gosling opened up about something that bonds his partner and their daughters: critiquing his movies. Speaking to Access Hollywood<\/a> in February 2026, the actor shared that his family had seen \u201cmultiple cuts\u201d of his film Project Hail Mary, and they had thoughts. \u201cThey give me lots of notes. They\u2019re basically the only critics I care about,\u201d he said, adding jokingly that Esmeralda and her younger sister Amada are \u201cvery critical and very honest.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Talking to Extra TV<\/a> the same month, he elaborated on some of their best feedback. \u201cWith the start of the character [in Project Hail Mary] I was playing with looks for the character, and my daughter walked by. I had some glasses on. She goes, \u2018You look smarter in glasses.\u2019 And I was like\u2026\u2019I need to look smart. I will wear glasses.\u2019 It was a great note.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Amada Lee Gosling <\/p>\n Esmeralda became a big sister a few months before her second birthday. Gosling and Mendes welcomed their second child, daughter Amada Lee, on April 29, 2016. Her first name (also Esmeralda\u2019s middle name) is a tribute to Mendes\u2019 grandmother.<\/p>\n In January 2026, Mendes got in on the 2016 nostalgia trend by sharing a carousel<\/a> of throwback photos to Instagram and candidly reflecting on the year she welcomed Amada. \u201c2016 – I was hiding my second pregnancy from the public, made some pretty cool biz moves, and heartbreakingly, my brother John passed,\u201d she began the post\u2019s caption, adding, \u201cThank God my youngest was born and saved the family. \u2665\ufe0f.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Along with her sister, Amada loves to give their mom adorable makeovers<\/a>. Mendes has previously shared the results of the creative mother-daughter glam sessions to her Instagram, often sporting a rainbow of scribbled colors. “They\u2019ve won \u2764\ufe0f,” she captioned one now-deleted post, per People<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Eva Mendes reading her book ‘Desi, Mami, And The Never-Ending Worries’ on September 18, 2024.<\/p>\n Gotham\/Getty Images for ABA<\/p>\n Besides their passion for makeup, it\u2019s likely the model\u2019s daughters will inherit her love of fashion<\/a>\u2014and her covetable wardrobe. Mendes told People<\/a> in 2019 that looking at old photographs of her mother\u2019s aspirational style prompted her to \u201csave a bunch of stuff\u201d for Esmeralda and Amada.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI look at my mom and I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Mom, where is that dress?\u2019 And she\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my God, that dress. I didn\u2019t even like that dress. I gave it away.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018I would die for this dress right now,\u2019\u201d Mendes recalled to the outlet.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI have so many of those moments that I definitely save a bunch of stuff, for [Amada and Esmeralda],\u201d she added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have much money at all, growing up. So my mom\u2019s clothes weren\u2019t quality, but they were so cool. I\u2019m like, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you save this for me?\u2019\u201c\n<\/p>\n Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling at the 2024 Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n LOIC VENANCE\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest gift Mendes and Gosling hope to pass down to their girls is that of self-confidence. Mendes has been open<\/a> about how she and Gosling don\u2019t let their young kids use social media. \u201cI think everything starts in the home\u2014everything,” the Hitch actress told Byrdie in 2022, per People<\/a>. “So hopefully Ryan and I are doing the work by just loving them, completely loving them, and doing most of that work for them so that they grow up feeling like they’re enough.”<\/p>\n While their kids won\u2019t be getting as much screentime, they have something better to entertain them: A cute doodle mix named Magic. Mendes introduced the family\u2019s new dog<\/a> in November 2024, posting a clip of the rescue pup to her Instagram. \u201cMeet the newest member of our family \u2026 Magic!!!\u201d she captioned the post, revealing that she and Gosling adopted Magic through California Doodle Rescues.\n<\/p>\n