For being so mysterious during her pregnancy, Eva Mendes is sure getting candid about motherhood and the struggles that come with it. The Cuban actress and boyfriend Ryan Gosling have practically been in hiding since they welcomed daughter Esmeralda Amada in September. Mendes is finally opening up about what inspired her to pick the beautiful Spanish name and how she really feels about nannies. However, she did manage to dance around one very interesting question about her baby girl.
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What I admire most about Eva Mendes' cover story for Violet Grey is that she doesn't hold back much. She bluntly avoids the question about whether baby Esmeralda was planned or a surprise (I think we all know the answer!), but besides that she's pretty open with the interviewer. Here are a couple of snippets.
About deciding not to be in the spotlight during her pregnancy:
Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it's unfair but that's our reality. So Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that.
On whether she has a nanny:
I'm doing it without a nanny for now but I'm open to the idea of having a nanny in the future. Esmeralda has two amazing grandmothers and incredible aunties who come over and really help me.
Sharing her beauty secrets:
When it comes to skin care I love using things I can find in my kitchen cabinet! I use coconut oil as a moisturizer and I combine yogurt and sea salt to exfoliate. If I'm going out and looking tired and puffy (which happens a lot these days), I dip my face into a bucket of ice water.
About having more appreciation for her own mother:
I cannot believe that by the time my mother was 24 she had three kids under the age of four. She was in Cuba and totally alone. 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.
On naming her daughter:
We both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame and just think it's a beautiful name. Her middle is Amada, which was my grandmother's name. It means "beloved" in Spanish.
It must be incredibly difficult to fight for that level of privacy. I give her credit for trying to create a sense of normalcy for her and her family, but the fact is that she is Eva Mendes and decided to have a baby with one of the sexiest men in Hollywood. She could have hooked up with a behind-the-scenes guy, but she didn't.
She's going to have to spill the beans every once in a while–and she's doing just that. I love that she's a Hollywood star in the old school sense of having a little bit of mystery to her. Now, can we see a pic of baby E?
Image via Getty Images, Violet Grey
