Eva Mendes shares eye-opening fact about what Ryan Gosling is really like as a dad

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling may keep their relationship and family private, but that doesn't stop them from being one of Hollywood's cutest couples. The duo share two daughters, Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, eight, who they have protected from the spotlight. 

The former actress has often spoken about her proud Cuban roots, and how this has inspired her approach to motherhood. But as she spoke to Vogue Mexico about her family life, she made some surprising revelations about Ryan — including exactly how aligned they are as parents.

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"You know what… Sometimes I tell him that he is more Cuban than me. He has a Cuban inside that I can’t explain," she said of her partner according to a translation of the interview. 

She continued: "The girls call him Papi, not Dad. In his essence, he has assimilated the Cubanness so strongly that I have."

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One example of how Ryan appears to have taken on Eva's 'Cuban essence' is their approach to sleepovers. 

"I am the typical Cuban mother, who does not understand that thing about ‘sleepovers’. My thing with my daughters is: ‘you don’t stay overnight at that house because I don’t know them well,'" she explained. "And you know who else is like that? The Cuban Ryan!"

The former actress gushed that they "aligned from the beginning" and they didn't have to adjust when it came to their cultural differences; he embraced her Cuban heritage fully. 

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"The first time he tried my mom's black beans and rice pudding, it was like, 'How could I have lived all these years without trying this?'"

Eva also opened up about what it was like to get to know Ryan while they worked together on The Place Beyond the Pines: "The truth is, I have never felt comfortable in front of the cameras acting, except when I acted alongside Ryan, who is the best actor to share a movie with. I think he is one of the best actors of this generation."

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But according to the 50-year-old, they actually met long before working together: "We actually met on an airplane a very long time ago."

Eva has stepped back from acting for the past 10 years to take care of her kids, which she described as "the easiest decision I've ever made".

"I was older, and I knew that my kids are going to be little once, and whatever I do or don't do right now is going to affect them the rest of their life," she explained. "Your career comes and goes but kids, yeah, that was easy for me."