Eva Mendes spent Sunday night supporting her husband Ryan Gosling — but unlike other celeb partners, she was nowhere to be seen on the red carpet. At the 2024 Oscars, the A-list couple made it very clear, once and for all: they do not do red carpets. And honestly, it's probably time we all stopped demanding to see them together and let them support each other in private.
As Ken had his moment in the spotlight, Gosling chose to walk the red carpet with his entire family — namely, his mum Donna Gosling, sister Mandi Gosling, and stepdad Valerio Attanasio. Wife Eva, however, was nowhere in sight.
"Ryan Gosling has more stage presence than any male pop star alive," wrote one X.com user.
Instead, she spent her time supporting her husband from backstage.
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First, she took to Instagram to share a video of herself standing outside of his dressing room wearing a jean jacket, jean skirt and black cap. “Always by my man,” she wrote.
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Later in the evening, she posted a picture of herself in the dressing room wearing some of the costume pieces from her husband's already-legendary I'm Just Ken performance. “You took Ken all the way to the Oscars, RG. Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed,” she wrote in the caption.
During the show, Gosling also made a small reference to Mendes — at the end of his performance, he kissed his ‘E’ necklace as a sweet gesture to his wife.
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Despite all of this cuteness, many fans were still a little confused as to why Mendes chose to support Gosling from backstage rather than walking the red carpet with him. However, skipping joint red carpet appearances is kind of their thing. Over the course of their 13 year relationship, the pair have only ever appeared at one event together — the premiere of their film The Place Beyond the Pines in 2012. And at the time, they hadn't even gone public with their relationship yet.
Last year, Mendes explained why in an Instagram comment. After a fan asked why they never attended events as a couple, she replied, “Like these photos I’ve been posting, I’m only comfortable posting because it’s already out there.”
She went on, “By ‘not comfortable,’ I mean exposing our very private life that we value. I’m still dying to do another movie with him though….”
Favourite moment of the Oscars 2024?
After Mendes once again skipped the red carpet last night, some fans were a little disappointed. Because let's face it, seeing this pair together would be nothing short of seismic in the world of celebrity.
“Why doesn't she ever join him on the red carpet? Especially since he’s nominated. Imagine the glamour of the two,” one fan commented on her post.
“But we need you on the red carpet,” another chimed in.
Perhaps it's time we all relaxed a little — after all, Mendes and Gosling deserve to support each other however they see fit. In fact, it seems that we are all increasingly expecting celebrity couples to perform their love for our benefit. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are a prime example of just how much star couples content we seem to want – not to mention the new online trend of lip-reading our favourite pairings (read: Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet) to find out what they're saying to each other.
Is it any wonder that Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes value their privacy? And for the record, Ryan always makes sure to pay tribute to Eva during his big career moments – from his sweet ‘E’ necklace to his award acceptance speech at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January.
After reflecting on his love of making movies and his career so far, he said: “But most importantly, I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes, and have two dream children. I dreamed of making movies, and now movies have made my life a dream.”
Cute. Sounds like this pair are doing just fine, sans red carpet and all.
They even gave ‘some good notes’.
