Eva Mendes gives rare insight into private family life in Australia with Ryan Gosling

Hollywood couple Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling have been making the most of family time while they’re in Sydney, now opening up about their daughters’ Aussie education.

Actor Eva Mendes has given some rare insights into her closely-guarded family life while she and actor husband Ryan Gosling are living in Sydney.

Eva Mendes’ young daughters start their home schooling every day with a Welcome to Country.

The American actor and entrepreneur is living in Sydney for the next few months while her husband Ryan Gosling films The Fall Guy movie.

“I don’t do the home schooling myself because I’ve tried that and it’s not one of my strengths,” Mendes told The Daily Telegraph.

“We travel a lot and one of my strong beliefs is that you try to always keep a family together, no matter what you’re doing. Especially when the children are small.

“We’re lucky enough to have someone we travel with that can continue their education at this point, and what we do is we try to incorporate the city we’re in as much as possible.”

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling are living in Sydney with their two daughters, Esmerelda and Amada, while he films The Fall Guy. Picture: Sonia Recchia/Getty Images.

She added that Esmeralda, 8, and Amada, 6, have picked up little “Aussie twangs” in the last month and a half, that she hopes they won’t lose.

“My little one gets in the car yesterday and she tells me ‘mamma, do you know that there’s actually more kangaroos than there are people here?’ I don’t know if that’s a fact but it was fun.”

Actor Eva Mendes has been “pleasantly surprised” by how child-friendly Sydney is. Picture: Mendes visiting Sydney in 2008.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes in New York in 2017. Picture: Robert Kamau/GC Images

Mendes said her favourite part about Sydney is how family-friendly the city is, with the “epic” parks being her top destination on a non-rainy day.

She and her daughters are all at home right now, sick with colds.

The Mendes-Gosling family are all “huge Bluey fans,” she said. “My manager called me and said ‘can I pass on this Bluey thing?’, and I was like NO, I’ll do anything for Bluey. I’ll be a superstar at home.”

Mendes voiced one line in the Australian kid’s cartoon series, as a yoga teacher.

Visiting local parks is Mendes’ favourite thing to do with her daughters on a “rare non-rainy day”. She recently visited Rose Bay. Picture: Supplied

She also wanted to address rumours, reported in the global press, that she had quit acting.

“God no, I never quit acting. All these articles came out saying I had, and I stayed quiet because I didn’t care. But then I always think about what my kids are going to read, and I don’t like the narrative. I didn’t quit anything, I shifted my work because I want to be as close to my kids as possible while they’re still little.”

“And to be honest, there’s still not great roles out there for Latina women.”

As her daughters get older, it’s getting easier to explain what she and Gosling do for work.

However, Mendes said she keeps family life as private and “normal” for them as possible.

“We decline to take pictures when we’re with the kids, even if someone is really nice, because our children come first and it’s very weird for them.

“They’re at a place where they kind of get it, but then they’ll say something about how Ryan really went to the moon.”

Eva Mendes is the McHappy Day 2022 ambassador and says: “Supporting this cause comes from unfortunately personal experience, and I know first-hand how important it is to keep a family together when a child is sick.” Picture: Supplied

While Mendes, 48, is in Australia, she’s fronting the McHappy Day 2022 annual fundraiser, which launches today with McHappy Time.

She got involved as an ambassador in 2020 because her cousin’s little boy had cancer when he was just one-year-old.

“She was in New York for treatment, and I offered to get her a place to stay, which she actually declined because she was staying at Ronald McDonald House Charities.

I was like really? And she said yeah, I’m really happy. The kids love it and I get to talk to other parents who are going through similar things. It really hit me, and made me think this place must be really special.”

McHappy Day is a long-time fundraiser for the charity that provides emergency care nearby hospitals for kids and their families undergoing treatment.

From today, you can support the cause by picking up a pair of Silly Socks or a Helping Hand from your nearest Maccas,” Mendes said, repeating Maccas three times to try out an Aussie pronunciation.

“Being here for it means everything to be, it’s come full circle, and something meaningful I can do while I’m here.”

She will meet with seriously ill and injured kids and their families staying at Ronald McDonald House in Sydney on November 19.

Originally published as Eva Mendes gives rare insight into private family life in Australia with Ryan Gosling