Ryan Gosling just shared how Eva Mendes and his daughters got a sneaky front row seat to his Oscars performance

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are one of the most private couples in Hollywood. Despite being together since 2011 and sharing two daughters, we weren’t even sure if they were married until November 2022! Still, the pair have kept their family together and away from the press for 11 years, which makes them one of the most consistent, stable couples in the business.

In 2017, Gosling broke their usual protocol when he gushed over Mendes in his acceptance speech after winning a Golden Globe for his performance in La La Land. “I just would like to try and thank one person properly and say that, 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,” he said. “If she hadn’t taken all that on so I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me. So sweetheart, thank you.”

Recently, attention was on Ryan once again throughout awards season – thanks to his genius turn as Ken in Barbie – accumulating in his iconic performance of I'm Just Ken at the Oscars 2024. Many noticed that wife Eva wasn't in attendance at the ceremony (though she was in fact backstage supporting him) – but now, Ryan has shared that both Eva and his daughters were witness to his epic show up-close. In fact, they got a private performance!

He told People: “It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row,” adding: “They are such a huge part of this for me... it was my girl's interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end.”

Cute, right? Eva and Ryan typically keep most things about their relationship private, including their two daughters, of course – but here’s everything we know about their enviable relationship…

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' love story

September 2011: The pair hit it off while filming The Place Beyond the Pines, which came out in 2013. Gosling and Mendes were then spotted on a date at Disneyland just after brief dalliances with Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis, respectively. Remarkably, those two would end up entering their own long-term relationship that same year; Wilde and Sudeikis, who split in November 2020, also share two children.

September 2014: Gosling and Mendes welcome their first child, a daughter named Esmerelda.

April 2016: They welcome a second daughter, Amada. Later that year Gosling tells GQ, “Your whole life you hear what it’s like to have kids, and all the clichés are true. I felt I knew that everything would be different, but until you experience that, there’s no way to really know what people mean. I only know what it’s like to have my kids. And in my situation, Eva’s the dream mother, and they’re dream babies, and it’s like a dream that I’m having right now. I’m dreaming it all.”

January 2017: Accepting a Golden Globe for La La Land, Gosling reflects on Mendes’s sacrifices.

September 2017: During a rare night out, the couple is photographed leaving the SNL after-party at Tao in New York together.

April 2019: Mendes explains that she’s keeping their kids pretty much in the dark about Hollywood. “The whole fame component is super scary when you try to raise your kids,” she told Women’s Health. “What I try to emphasise is that I don’t let them see me put attention to how I dress. They’ve never seen me get ready for something; they’ve never seen me at work. Which is fine, for whoever wants to do it that way, but the way I keep it normal is by not letting them see me in these situations. I’m just Mom. And I’m more than happy to just be Mom.”

March 2020: Mendes reveals why she doesn’t share personal photos with her partner online. “As far as Ryan, I’ll only post flashbacks of things that are already ‘out there’ (like pics from movies we did or stuff like that),” she explained to a fan on Instagram. “My man and kids are private. That’s important to me so thanks for getting that. Have a beautiful day. Sending so much love!”

October 2021: Gosling opens up about parenting with Mendes during the pandemic. “Our kids are young, so it was a tough time for them to be separated from other kids and not being able to see family and whatnot. So, we did our best to entertain them,” Gosling said in an interview with GQ. “I think Eva and I did more acting in quarantine than we have in our whole careers.”

May 2022: Mendes shares how she and Gosling split up household responsibilities in an interview with People, “Ryan’s the cook. He’s an incredible cook,” she said. “I think that there’s a really nice balance to ‘You cook, I clean.’ And it just works for us.”

June 2022: During an appearance on The Talk, Mendes says she got to keep the Calvin Klein–inspired “Ken” underwear from her husband's promotional Barbie photo shoot. “I saw the photo and the 14-year-old in me was like, ‘Ahhhhh,’” Mendes said. “It’s a funny photo and he’s trying to be funny, so it worked on all levels. But when I saw it, he sent it to me from work, and I said, ‘Can I please have that underwear? Please. I never ask for anything.’”

July 2022: Ryan Gosling says his wife was very supportive of his “Kenergy” while filming the highly anticipated Barbie movie. “She started a hashtag, #ThatsMyKen, which meant a lot to me,” he said during BBC’s The One Show, per PopSugar UK. That same month, Gosling shared a rare anecdote about his youngest daughter on The Tonight Show, which you can watch here:

November 2022: The secret is out: Mendes and Gosling are married — and likely have been for many years. Early in the month, Mendes sparked fan speculation by posting an image of her “de Gosling” wrist tattoo on Instagram. On November 18 she confirmed their marital status by referring to Gosling as her husband during an interview with Channel Nine's Today, per Elle.

When asked about the recent wedding rumours on Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O Show podcast, Mendes replied, “But who says we weren’t already? I like to keep it all mysterious. I’m a very mysterious woman.” Regarding the tattoo, Mendes says she got it “years ago.”

July 7, 2023: Eva Mendes spent the entirety of the Barbie press tour gassing up her husband on Instagram. “To say he’s the greatest actor I’ve ever worked with is an understatement,” she wrote on July 7. Asked by Access Hollywood what her support means to him, Gosling replied, “It means everything.”

July 9, 2023: While his costar Margot Robbie chose the Barbie premiere to dress up like an actual Barbie doll from 1961, Ryan Gosling skipped the Ken cosplay and instead paid a subtle tribute to Eva Mendes. The actor hit the Barbie world premiere red carpet in Los Angeles on 9 July wearing a pink suit by Gucci and a necklace with an “E” pendant in the Barbie font, presumably for Eva. Aww.

December 20, 2023: Mendes shares Gosling’s holiday recording of “I’m Just Ken,” thanking producer Mark Ronson for “getting my man to make more music.” Revealing that her husband’s rock band Dead Man’s Bones, is her favorite, she adds, “when I first heard Ryan sing, MY HEART EXPLODED.”

While this is objectively adorable, one commenter jokingly took issue with Mendes’s referring to Gosling as “my man,” reminding her that “we all love him.” Of course, Mendes had the perfect response, writing, “You’re right! Our Man. It’ll never happen again. Merry Christmas! Lots of love !!”

January 13, 2024: While accepting the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Gosling thanks Mendes in the most touching way. “Most importantly, I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes, and have two dream children,” he said, per People. “I dreamed of one day making movies, and now, movies have made my life a dream.”

January 24, 2024: Petty in the best way. A day after the Oscar announcements, which included a nod for Gosling as Ken in Barbie, Mendes posted screenshots of a snarky article from two years earlier doubting her husband's ability to play the iconic doll.

“So much hate when he took on this role. So many people trying to shame him for doing it. Despite all the #Notmyken ridicule and articles written about him, he created this completely original, hilarious, heartbreaking, now iconic character… So beyond proud to be this Ken’s Barbie 💕,” she wrote.

March 10, 2024: Mendes accompanies Gosling to the Oscars and posts a short video of herself in the doorway of his dressing room. “Always by my man,” she wrote on Instagram.

However, she did not walk the red carpet with Gosling – that was his sister, Mandi.

Following her man’s absolutely epic performance of “I’m Just Ken,” Mendes congratulates him and indicates they’re headed home. Oh, and ignore all the comments asking why she didn’t “go with him” to the Oscars; she’s literally posting from his dressing room, in his costume. He probably took this picture.

“Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed.”

March 15, 2024: In an interview with US magazine PEOPLE, Gosling reveals that Mendes, and the couple's daughters Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 7, attended a dress rehearsal of his Oscars “I’m Just Ken” performance. Not only that, they delivered “tips and some notes, all great notes” from their front row seats. Sadly, Gosling reminded tight-lipped about the precise nature of the feedback!

“They are such a huge part of this for me... it was my girl's interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end,” he added.

This feature originally appeared on GLAMOUR US.