Ryan Gosling Wore an “E” Necklace to a “Barbie” Premiere in a Subtle Nod to Eva Mendes

<span class="caption"><span class="caas-xray-inline-tooltip"><span class="caas-xray-inline caas-xray-entity caas-xray-pill rapid-nonanchor-lt" data-entity-id="Ryan_Gosling" data-ylk="cid:Ryan_Gosling;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" tabindex="0" aria-haspopup="dialog"><a href="https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Ryan%20Gosling" data-i13n="cid:Ryan_Gosling;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" tabindex="-1" data-ylk="slk:Ryan Gosling;cid:Ryan_Gosling;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" class="link ">Ryan Gosling</a></span></span> and <span class="caas-xray-inline-tooltip"><span class="caas-xray-inline caas-xray-entity caas-xray-pill rapid-nonanchor-lt" data-entity-id="Eva_Mendes" data-ylk="cid:Eva_Mendes;pos:2;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" tabindex="0" aria-haspopup="dialog"><a href="https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Eva%20Mendes" data-i13n="cid:Eva_Mendes;pos:2;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" tabindex="-1" data-ylk="slk:Eva Mendes;cid:Eva_Mendes;pos:2;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:Actor;" class="link ">Eva Mendes</a></span></span> Through the Years</span><span class="photo-credit">Mathew Tsang - Getty Images</span>
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Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes seem like one of Hollywood’s most solid couples, even though they keep most of their romantic life pretty private. They first sparked dating rumors in 2011 while filming The Place Beyond the Pines and have been going strong ever since. Here, we look back at their connection over the last decade and beyond.

August 2011

The couple were friends for many years before they started dating, according to Oprah Daily. “We had known each other for a while already, so to work together was really exciting,” Mendes said of filming The Place Beyond the Pines in New York together.

But soon, they seemed to be spending a lot of time together for just friends. “There’s always been this strong chemistry between them… this was just a matter of time!” said a source on set.

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September 2011

In September of that year, the pair were seen smooching at Disneyland. An observer told Us Magazine how flirty they were. “They were very playful,” they said. “Eva was skipping around like a little girl… She would lean into him, and she held his arm the entire time.”

October 2011

Before Zendaya and Tom Holland followed suit in 2021, Gosling and Mendes got busted while making out at a stoplight in Hollywood. Soon after, they flew out to Paris together.

June 2012

The next summer, the couple visited Gosling’s native country, Canada, and spent time with his mother, Donna. Donna was apparently a big fan of Mendes.

“Donna and Eva get along really, really well,” said a source. “Donna wants Ryan to settle down, and Eva is all about getting him on that train, too, so they’re both on the same page.”

Another source claimed that Mendes’ family also gave the relationship the all-clear. “Eva says that’s what sealed the deal with Ryan” the insider said. “They’re going to make it.”

September 2012

eva mendes and ryan gosling pose together while standing in front of a toronto film festival backdrop, she wears a transparent lace dress with a black headwrap and dangling earrings, he wears a white collared shirt with a brown blazer
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling at the Toronto Film FestivalGetty Images

The Place Beyond the Pines premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and the couple posed on the red carpet together. They were also each other’s date when the movie premiered in NYC at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema.

September 2014

Mendes gave birth to the couple’s first child, their daughter Esmeralda Amada. Mendes had apparently not planned to be a mom, but that changed when she and Gosling got together. “Then it made sense for me to have… not kids, but his kids,” she told Women’s Health. “It was very specific to him.”

April 2015

Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River is released, co-starring Mendes.

December 2015

Gosling made some rare comments about their relationship, saying in an interview with Hello! magazine, “I know that I’m with the person I’m supposed to be with.” When pressed about what qualities he looks for in a woman he said the only only quality he looks for is “that she’s Eva Mendes... There’s nothing else I’m looking for.”

May 2016

The pair welcome their second daughter, Amada Lee.


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September 2016

Marriage rumors swirl around the couple, and Us Weekly reported that they’d had a ceremony with “a small group of family and friends.” Soon after, TMZ refuted the story.

Back in 2011, Mendes had told Chelsea Handler, “I’m not like anti-marriage or the institution, like for other people. And I love the idea of a union—that’s all very beautiful. But I think, you know, it’s a very old fashioned, archaic kind of thing. We did it for land originally. How unromantic is that?”

She added that it would be fun “to be with someone in your fifties and sixties and be like, ‘That’s my boyfriend.’”

January 2017

Gosling received a Golden Globe award for La La Land and thanked “his lady” for her support:

“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. If she hadn’t taken all of that on so that I could have this experience, there would surely be someone else up here other than me today, so, sweetheart, thank you.”

September 2019

Mendes told Access Hollywood a little about parenting her with Gosling. “It’s so fun and beautiful and maddening,” she said. “It’s so hard, of course, but it’s that that feeling of ending your day and putting them to bed and Ryan and I look at each other like, ‘We did it, we came out relatively unscathed.’”

October 2021

Much like their relationship, the couple try to keep their kids out of the spotlight. Gosling isn’t active on social media, and Mendes has responded to people accusing him of not being an active parent because he doesn’t appear much in her feed.

“I don’t talk about Ryan and all the wonderful things he does as a father because I keep that part private,” she wrote. “I feel it’s best that I continue to disclose what I’m comfortable with but not involve him or my kids too much. It’s not about being cagey or weird, it’s just about staying private in a public space. Does that make sense? Hope so. Because this is my honest answer.”

But Gosling did share a little bit about what it was like parenting under lockdown conditions from 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,” Gosling told GQ. “So, we did our best to entertain them.”

May 2022

Mendes promoted Gosling’s new movie, The Gray Man, sharing a poster for the film in which Gosling looks like a picture-perfect star. “My man making all my 1980’s action star dreams come true,” she captioned it.

June 2022

She also got excited about Gosling’s role as the iconic Ken in the Margot Robbie–led Barbie film.

“So. F. Funny. So. F. Good. So F excited for you to see this...” she wrote, hashtagging it #Thatsmyken.

November 2022

On November 15, Mendes shared her new inner-wrist tattoo on Instagram, a design that spells “de Gosling.”

Mendes, who was raised by her Cuban parents in Miami, might be referring to the tradition of adding a husband’s last name onto the woman’s original name after their marriage, using de or “of.” If Mendes and Gosling were married, her name could be Eva Mendes de Gosling. Fans took the tattoo as a sign that Mendes and Gosling are secretly hitched.

Mendes then made an appearance on Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O Show, where they naturally asked about the tattoo. Co-host Brittany Hockley asked directly, “There’s a rumor that you guys might have secretly tied the knot. Is that true?”

Mendes replied, “But who says we weren’t already? I like to keep it all mysterious. I’m a very mysterious woman.”

About the the tattoo, she said, “I do have a tattoo. It’s just a press on… no, it’s not a press on. But I got it years ago. I posted a picture, and I’ve gotten a lot of funny questions.”

April 2023

Mendes explained why she and Gosling don’t do red carpets together to a user on Instagram expressing hope that they would appear together on the Barbie press tour. What a cool comment, thank you,” Mendes replied, via Entertainment Tonight. “But we don’t do those things together. Like these photos I’ve been posting, Im only comfortable posting because it’s already out there. ♥️.”

May 2023

Ahead of the release of the Barbie movie this July, Mendes made a rare public support of Gosling and his role as Ken in the movie. She posted a photo of herself on Instagram, wearing a shirt with him in character on it. “Got that real big Kenergy. Coz girls is players too,” she captioned it.

Gosling later spoke about Mendes in an interview with GQ. He revealed that he never imagined himself being a parent until “Eva said she was pregnant. I would never want to go back, you know? I’m glad I didn’t have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.”

Meeting Mendes changed the course of his life. “I was looking for her, you know?” Gosling said, adding he wasn’t even fully aware at the time. “But it all makes sense now.”

When parenting their two daughters, “I just lean on Eva [when I’m not sure what to do]. She knows what’s important, always. She just somehow knows. So if ever I’m in my head about it, I just ask her.”

June 2023

During his press tour in Canada for his upcoming movie Barbie, Gosling shared what it’s like to be the “Barbie dad” to his two daughters who apparently have “complicated backstories” for their dolls. On June 29, he shared with ET Canada that Esmeralda and Amada like to make up their own universe.

“Well, you have to know, my kids, their Barbies aren’t even named Barbie,” he explained. “They all have their own names, very complicated lives, backstories, interrelationships, history, you gotta know it all.” He joked that if he were to jump into play he could be informed the dolls were “estranged now” and that “it’s like, ‘Get out of here.’ They don’t even talk!”

Also in his daughters’ Barbie world, Ken has been demoted. “He works at a grocery store, he’s not a fireman,” Gosling said.

July 2023

In a Rolling Stone interview published in early July, Barbie director Greta Gerwig discussed her vision of casting Gosling as Ken. “Who else could do this?” she said. “It’s some combination of Marlon Brando meets Gene Wilder meets John Barrymore meets John Travolta.”

A couple days later, Mendes shared Gerwig’s statement in her caption of another Instagram post about the movie and said “One of my favorite things the insanely talented & beautiful Greta Gerwig says in @rollingstone about Mi Hombre, Mi Vida, Mi Amor...RG💗”

ryan gosling looks into the camera at a movie press event, he wears a baby pink blazer and collared shirt with an e necklace
Ryan Gosling attends the Los Angeles premiere of Barbie on July 9.Getty Images

Then, at the Los Angeles premiere of Barbie on July 9, Gosling showed up in a monochromatic baby pink suit, but it was his necklace that stole the show. Likely in a nod to Mendes, he wore a monogrammed necklace with the letter “E” in Barbie’s signature color and font.

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