EVA OPENS UP ABOUT MUM GUILT
THE ACTRESS OPENS UP ABOUT THE ‘JUGGLE’ AND HOW THE SUPPORT OF PARTNER RYAN GOSLING GETS HER THROUGH
She might not have added much to her acting résumé in recent years, but Eva Mendes is still just as busy as ever. Not only is the 47-year-old raising her two daughters – Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 5 – with long-term partner Ryan Gosling, 40, she’s also been working on her own line for fashion brand New York & Company for the past eight years.
“I feel so lucky to be doing something that I can be creative with and that gives me another way of expressing myself,” she recently told HOLA! USA magazine of the swap from actress to fashion designer.
But like many working mums the star isn’t immune to the struggles of the juggle, admitting she still finds it difficult to find a balance between her career and motherhood. “It’s such a challenge! And [one] that I’m grateful to have because that means I have a job, but I have not figured it out,” she told the publication. “What I’m constantly consumed by, especially when I feel overwhelmed – which is every day at certain parts of the day – is how did my mother do this? How did she do this alone in Cuba with three kids, fetching her own water from the well and then coming over to the United States alone?”
While the A-list couple have made a conscious decision to raise their girls out of the spotlight, Mendes has revealed they are “very, very opinionated and active” – which she and her partner of a decade find “beautiful, but it’s maddening”. And although she’s found it easier to work more now that her daughters are a bit older, she still wants to “be present as a mum”.
“I feel like the guilt is always there,” she continued. “Even though I know that working is a necessity, and it’s also good for them to see me work, the hardest part is the mummy guilt that I feel.”
As many other parents can attest, it takes a village to raise a child. And Mendes and Gosling are no exception. “I do have to thank my family and Ryan’s family for being a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge support system,” the star shared. “To have his mum and my mum and his sister and my sisters around, you know, amazing tías [aunties] that help – is invaluable.”
Mendes has also always sung Gosling’s praises, telling her followers on Instagram last year that he is a “wonderful” father to their girls. He’s been incredibly supportive of her career, too. But last year she also opened up about her decision to step away from acting after welcoming her daughters. “As a mother now, there are many roles I won’t do,” she shared on Instagram. “There are many subject matters that I don’t want to be involved with, so it limits my choices and I’m fine with that. I have to set an example for my girls now.”
However, she admitted she could be tempted if the right project came along, especially if it involved working with
Gosling again. “I would love to either act opposite him again or be directed by him at some point,” said Mendes, who met Gosling on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011. “I just love working with him.”
For now though, she’s just happy playing the role of mum to her two girls. “We are definitely just mum and dad to them,” she has said. “And we’re trying to keep it that way as long as possible.”
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