Eva Mendes made an appearance on the Today Show last week and saddened fans after she gave an update on her mother’s health and wellbeing. After anchor Hoda Kotb wished the Hitch sitar’s mother, Eva Perez Suarez a happy Mother’s Day, Mendes then teared up. “She’s not doing too well right now, so, means a lot to me,” Mendes, 48, said with tears in her eyes. “She’s a survivor in every way,” the Ghost Rider actress said before thanking Kotb for her well wishes.
Mendes also spoke with Kotb about what she’s learned from her mother and after becoming one herself. The 2 Fast 2 Furious alum has been in a relationship with Ryan Gosling, 41, since 2011 and the couple share two daughters: Esmeralda, 7, and Amada, 6. “I really took it back to when I was little,” she shared about approaching parenting and reflecting on her own childhood. “My mom was able to be there for me at home until I was about 8 or 9, and those memories for me, that just formed who I was, those years with her,” she continued.
Eva Mendes tears up while revealing her mother isn’t ‘doing too well’ https://t.co/Sj2ChLpvQf pic.twitter.com/wCB3l2T69N
— Page Six (@PageSix) May 10, 2022
In the past, Mendes has revealed to other outlets that she intended on taking a break from acting to raise her daughters with Gosling. She previously noted that having two children gave her a better appreciation of what her own mother endured while raising her and her 3 other siblings.
After giving birth to her first daughter in 2014, she was featured in a profile for Violet Grey. At the time, Mendes said, “I cannot believe that by the time my mother was 24, she had three kids under the age of 4. She was in Cuba and totally alone.” She added, “So when it’s the wee hours of the night and I’m feeling a bit insane, I think about her and realize that I have no right to complain about anything.”
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Five years later, she spoke to Women’s Health about how falling in love with Gosling helped her change her view on having children, as before dating him, becoming a mother was the “furthest thing” from her mind. “Ryan’s mom, my mom, Ryan’s and my sisters. It’s a village that helped us,” Mendes said, of her motherhood journey and other women who helped her. “My heart goes out to women who do this alone,” she added while recalling her own mother’s journey. “I basically come from a single-parent household; although I love my dad, my mom mostly raised four of us on her own.”
