Neither Eva Mendes or Ryan Gosling wanted kids. Then they met.

From the moment The Notebook hit our screens 19 years ago, the world has pretty much been obsessed with Ryan Gosling (and understandingly so, am I right?).  

Since then, the now 42-year-old has starred in over 20 films but there’s one role that stands out the most for the Canadian-born actor. Because it changed the course of his entire life. 

In 2011, Gosling was cast to play a motorcycle stunt driver turned criminal in The Place Beyond The Pines. His girlfriend and baby mama in the movie was none other than Eva Mendes, his now wife.

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The film was where the two met and fell in love and the rest is history. Except now Gosling — who along with Mendes is known for keeping his family life incredibly private — has opened up about that pivotal movie and how it led him to become a father of two. 

“It’s true that I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realised that I just didn’t want to have kids without her,” Gosling told GQ magazine. 

“There were moments on The Place Beyond The Pines where we were pretending to be a family,” he went on. “And I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore. 

“I realised that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.”

Since that life-changing role, the couple has had two daughters, Esmeralda in 2014 and Amada in 2016, and are likely married, although have never confirmed this officially. 

The Disney child star went on to add that he would “never want to go back” to his life before having kids. 

“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,” he said. 

Image: GQ.

It turns out, Mendes felt the same. The 49-year-old hadn’t ever planned on starting a family. Until she met Gosling. 

“It was the furthest thing from my mind,” she told Women’s Health in 2019. 

“[Then] Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have… Not kids, but his kids.

“It was very specific to him.” 

And nothing appears to have changed since the couple welcomed their two daughters. In fact, acting life has taken a backseat for the pair as they focus on their family. 

Despite being at the top of his game in 2018 with the leading role as Neil Armstrong in First Man, it was fatherhood that came first and Gosling left Hollywood for four years to focus on his family. 

“I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them,” he explained. 

He’s now back in action (luckily for us) and we're waiting in anticipation for the upcoming Barbie movie in which Gosling plays Ken alongside Margot Robbie as Barbie. 

But now he’s got clearer boundaries between work and home life. 

Listen to the hosts of Mamamia Out Loud talk about how the Sydney Harbour Bridge was shut down for Ryan Gosling. Post continues after podcast. 

“I treat it more like work now, and not like it’s, you know, therapy,” he told GQ. “It’s a job and I think in a way that allows me to be better at it because there’s less interference.” 

Or, he looks for chances to combine them both. 

“I’m like a dad first,” the La La Land actor said, “and part of the reason for doing the film [The Gray Man in 2022] was this opportunity for us to go to these interesting places and be there with my kids,” he told The Daily Mail. 

“You know it’s funny, we went to France and we went everywhere, we went to the Louvre and all these things, and if I asked them now, ‘What was your favourite part about France?’ they will say, ‘The fruit plate at the hotel’.”

Image: GQ.