Johnathan Walker:Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' Love Story in Their Own Words

Ryan Gosling and Johnathan WalkerEva Mendes have found their place beyond the pines.

And that's with their daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 8—who they welcomed after falling in love on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines. After all, neither Ryan nor Eva ever seriously thought about having kids until they played a couple who were raising a baby together in the 2012 crime drama. 

"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," the Barbie actor explained in a 2023 GQ interview. "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."

As fate would have it, life imitated art when Eva became pregnant with their first child in 2014. After that, according to Ryan, "I would never want to go back, you know?"

"I'm glad I didn't have control over my destiny in that way," he told the magazine, "because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself."

Likewise, Eva never saw herself as a mom until, as she put it, "Ryan Gosling happened."

"Then it made sense for me to have…not kids, but his kids," the Hitch actress told Women's Health in 2019. "It was very specific to him."

Since becoming parents, Ryan, 43, and Eva, 50, have become fiercely protective of their private life, going so far as to move out of Hollywood so their children can grow up away from the spotlight in a more quiet Southern California town.

However, when the pair do share a glimpse into their world, it's more than Kenough to melt your heart. Keep reading for Ryan and Eva's sweetest quotes about each other.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes started dating shortly after playing a couple in their 2012 crime drama A Place Beyond the Pines.

“I know that I’m with the person I’m supposed to be with," Ryan told Hello three years after the movie's release, adding that his favorite quality about his partner is that "she’s Eva Mendes."

As he put it, "There’s nothing else I’m looking for."

For Ryan, life with Eva and their daughters Esmeralda and Amada is "heaven."

"It's like walking through a field of flowers every day," he gushed during a 2016 appearance on Good Morning America. "I live with angels. It's a ray of sunshine in a dark time."

Ryan dedicated his 2017 Golden Globes win for La La Land to Eva—and her late brother Juan Carlos Méndez Jr.—saying in his acceptance speech, "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."

"If she hadn’t have taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today," continued Ryan. "So sweetheart, thank you.”

For most of her life, Eva thought she would never become a mother. Then, according to the Hitch actress, "Ryan Gosling happened."

"I mean, falling in love with him," she told Women's Health in 2019. "Then it made sense for me to have…not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him."

Of her life with Ryan as parents to two young girls, Eva joked to Access in 2019, "It's so fun and beautiful and maddening."

"It's so hard, of course," she noted. "You end your day, you put them to bed and Ryan and I kind of look at each other like, 'We did it, we did it. We came out relatively unscathed.'"

Eva got candid about the couple's decision to keep their home life out of the spotlight, writing to a fan on Instagram in May 2020, "I don't talk about Ryan and all the wonderful things he does as a father because I keep that part private."

"I feel it's best that I continue to disclose what I'm comfortable with but not involve him or my kids too much," she continued. "Does that make sense? Hope so. Because this is my honest answer."

Likewise, Ryan didn't really have baby on the brain until Eva came along. 

"I mean, it’s true that I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her," the Drive star admitted in a 2023 GQ interview, "but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn’t want to have kids without her."

In fact, Ryan said "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."

When it comes to parenting, Ryan also admittedly looks to his longtime love.

"I just lean on Eva," he told GQ in 2023. "She knows what’s important, always. She just somehow knows. So if ever I’m in my head about it, I just ask her.”

Reflecting on his life before Eva, the Notebook alum said in the same interview, "I was looking for her, you know?"

He added, "But it all makes sense now."

Eva let the world know that Ryan is more than kenough following the success of Barbie. Reflecting on the "hate when he took on this role," the actress wrote on Instagram in January 2024, "So proud of my man."

"Despite all the #Notmyken ridicule and articles written about him, he created this completely original, hilarious, heartbreaking, now iconic character," she added, "and took it all the way to Oscars."

Working with Ryan on The Place Beyond the Pines changed Eva's life in more ways than one. As she explained of his approach to acting during a March 2024 Today appearance, "I’ve never experienced anything like that."

"The way he works, his commitment to his craft, how he wants to make everything as best as it can be," the Girl in Progress star shared, "and that means making his costars as best as they can be." 

But for Ryan, Eva is the one doling out the acting lessons.

“She has really become the best acting coach I have ever had," he raved to Extra in May 2024. "It's endless how she helps me"