SAVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP
THE COUPLE REKINDLE THE FLAME OF THEIR FORMERLY ROCKY ROMANCE — AND NOW THEY’RE HAPPIER THAN EVER.
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes couldn’t have looked more smitten when they were spotted on a late-night date at Kazu Sushi restaurant in L.A. on Sept. 11. After an intimate dinner, a doting Ryan graciously held the door for Eva, and the couple shared a sweet laugh as they walked to their car.
The next day, the famously reclusive actress turned up on Access Daily, where she gushed about the joys of parenting with her longtime love. “It’s fun and beautiful and maddening,” she said of raising their young daughters, Esmeralda, 5, and 3-yearold Amada. “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.’” That’s exactly what Ryan, 38, and Eva, 45, have done following a rough patch, during which their relationship appeared to be hanging by a thread. “They’ve certainly had their problems, but they’ve put in the time to make it work,” an insider tells Star. “Now they’re stronger than ever.”
The couple, who began dating after filming 2013’s The Place Beyond the Pines, were said to be on the verge of splitting last year amid rumors that Eva was “crazy jealous” of Ryan’s cozy friendship with his First Man costar Claire Foy — and before that, his fellow La La Land star Emma Stone. Another point of contention was the actor’s supposed refusal to have a third child.
But now, that’s all in the past. “They realized they need to talk it out and not let things fester,” says the pal. “And penciling in lots of private time has put the spark — and passion — back into their relationship. Ryan and Eva know they’ve got something special, and they want to nurture and keep it.”