Eva Mendes breaks silence on giving birth days after her brother's death
"It was beyond heart-breaking, but also kind of beautiful"
Eva Mendes
In May, we found out that Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling had welcomed Baby No. 2 into the world on April 29, 2016, surprising all of us—we hadn’t even known that she was pregnant! She gave birth to her daughter Amada Lee 12 days after the death of her brother, Carlos Mendes, passed away after battling cancer. He was 53 years old.
“We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby.”
It goes without saying that Mendes is an exceptionally private personality. But the 42-year-old actress recently broke her silence in Latina magazine’s September 2016 issue.
“Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with. So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have them. And then they were there for me when Amada was born. We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heart-breaking, but also kind of beautiful.”
Mendes admitted that she hasn’t “really processed that yet.” That’s totally understandable, as Mendes hasn’t had enough time to grieve, what with two young daughters.
“My older little girl is not yet 2 years old. My little one is still an infant, and right now it’s really about surviving those nights and trying to enjoy this time as much as possible with them, and start the bond between Esmeralda and Amada. It’s a really, really special time. I’m loving it.”
“It’s a really, really special time. I’m loving it.”
A photo posted by Eva Mendes (@evamendes) on
Click to the next page to read more of what Eva had to say.
Esmeralda Amada and Amada Lee
Mendes and Gosling, 35, met on the set of their film The Place Beyond the Pines. Their first child, Esmeralda Amada, is now 22 months old. Why are both of their daughters named Amada?
Photo: cinema_dream_ on Instagram
“My grandmother’s name is Amada, and Esmeralda Amada is the name of our oldest. We had a few names picked out for our new baby, and when she was born, we didn’t feel like those names were her. We came up with a few more, even that morning, and tried them out… But we just kept going back to Amada. In true Latin fashion, we reuse names all the time. I used to know five sisters that were all Maria del Carmen, Maria Elena, Maria Liliana…. [Laughs]
“And it was an emotional time with the passing of my brother. We thought how beautiful to go with what made us emotional and with what felt like her. When we looked at her, we thought, ‘Aww, Amadita.’ ”
“Right now I feel very fortunate to be home with my kids.”
Mendes is currently staying at home full-time with her daughters, and is in no hurry to get back to work.
“I’m not sure, but it would definitely take something really special. I don’t like saying ‘take me away,’ but essentially that’s what work does. I think it can be very, very healthy if it’s something that feels worthwhile. Right now I feel very fortunate to be home with my kids. I feel so lucky, and I’m just taking advantage of that.”