Are Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling Secretly Married?

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling have been together for over a decade and share two daughters, but until recently, it appeared the couple had decided against getting married in favor of remaining in a committed relationship sans labels. However, it looks like things might have changed. A recent comment from Mendes made everyone think that the Hitch actress and The Notebook actor might have updated their relationship status. So, are Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling secretly married?

During an interview on Channel Nine’s Today on Australian television, which aired on November 18, 2022, Mendes refers to Gosling as her husband. “Everyone is so welcoming here, and my husband Ryan is here, and we are having the best time,” Mendes says on the show.

The “husband” label comes just one week after the model and fashion designer posted a photo of her wrist tattoo, which included a nod to the La La Land star. On November 15, 2022, Mendes shared a snap of herself, showing off the tattoo on her wrist, which was engraved with the word “de Gosling.” In Hispanic cultures, “de” and “of” joins a woman’s last name with her husband’s last name after marriage, according to People. The tattoo further indicates that the actors could be married. 

During her Australian press run, Mendes explains that the tattoo is something she’s had for years. On Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O Show, the actress says she’s received “a lot of funny questions” following the Instagram post. “But who says we weren’t [married] already?” she asks. “I like to keep it all mysterious. I’m a very mysterious woman.”

Throughout their 11-year relationship, Mendes and Gosling have been famously private, keeping most of their partnership out of the limelight. “As far as Ryan and I, it just works for us this way to stay private,” she told Us Weekly in 2020. “I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids. I’ll talk about them, of course, with limits, but I won’t post pictures of our daily life.”

The two first met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011 while they were playing an onscreen couple. Shortly after filming the movie, they sparked dating rumors when they were spotted in Disneyland and locking lips in Paris. In September of 2012, the couple made their first red carpet appearance together, although they tried to keep their relationship under wraps. Mendes later told Kelly Clarkson about that moment. “That’s literally me going, ‘I’m not in love with him. I’m not in love with him,’” she shared. “‘Cause we were just trying to be very professional.”

Three years after they first met, the acting duo worked on their second project together, Lost River, in which Mendes was a cabaret dancer while Gosling was the film's writer, director, and co-producer.

In September of 2014, they welcomed their first daughter, Esmeralda. Two years after that, Mendes gave birth to baby number two, Amada. Before meeting Gosling, Mendes admitted that she never thought she wanted to have kids. When Women’s Health asked her what changed, she responded, “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.”