The circle of life. Eva Mendes gave a rare interview about her personal life in the September 2016 issue of Latina magazine, in which she opened up for the first time about her newborn daughter, Amada, who was born 12 days after the death of her brother, Carlos.
As previously reported, the Other Guys actress, 42, lost her 53-year-old brother to cancer on April 17. Less than two weeks later, she and partner Ryan Gosling welcomed their second child. (They are also parents of daughter Esmeralda, 22 months.)
“Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with,” Mendes told the women’s magazine. “So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have them. We had a funeral service for [Carlos], and that same week, I had the baby. It was really, really intense and obviously beyond heartbreaking, but also kind of beautiful.”
The Cuban beauty told Latina that she hasn’t “really processed” or had time to grieve Carlos’ untimely death. “My older little girl is not yet 2 years old,” she explained to the publication. “My little one is still an infant, and right now it’s really about surviving those nights and trying to enjoy this time as much as possible with them, and start the bond between Esmeralda and Amada. It’s a really, really special time. I’m loving it.”
Mendes also revealed that she named her adorable children after members of her family. “My grandmother’s name is Amada, and Esmeralda Amada is the name of our oldest,” she said. “We had a few names picked out for our new baby, and when she was born, we didn’t feel like those names were her. We came up with a few more, even that morning, and tried them out. We were like, ‘What about Viviana?’ But we just kept going back to Amada.”
She continued, “In true Latin fashion, we reuse names all the time. … I actually told [Ryan], ‘This is common in Latin culture, so it wouldn’t be crazy.’ … And it was an emotional time with the passing of my brother. We thought how beautiful to go with what made us emotional and with what felt like her. When we looked at her, we thought, ‘Aww, Amadita.’”
