Despite her long-term partner (or is it husband?) Ryan Gosling earning a handful of awards nominations for his role in La La Land, Eva Mendes was conspicious by her absence on the red carpet this season, even choosing to skip the Oscars.
Instead, Ryan was accompanied to the Academy Awards by his older sister Mandi. Cue plenty of confused Twitter questioning along the lines of 'Who's that girl? And where's Eva?'
In a new interview with Shape magazine, the 43-year-old actress has now revealed the reason behind her absence - and it has a lot to do with her and Ryan's two young daughters, Esmeralda, two, and Amada, 11 months.
'What people don't know about me is that I love being home. Instead of hitting the red carpet, I'd rather be with our girls,' she told Shape. Sweet - and totally understandable, no?
Since meeting on the set of The Place Beyond The Pines in 2011, Ryan and Eva have chosen to keep their relationship out of the spotlight, and are rarely pictured in public together.
While Eva might have opted out of joining Ryan on the red carpet, the actor did pay tribute to his 'sweetheart' in his acceptance speech after picking up the Golden Globe for Best Actor.
'I would like to try to thank one person properly, and say 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 her second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,' he said.
'If she hadn’t have taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So sweetheart, thank you,' he finished.
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