Eva Mendes said having children was “the furthest thing from my mind” until she met her long-term partner Ryan Gosling.

The Hollywood actress started dating her fellow A-list star after meeting on the set of 2011 film A Place Beyond The Pines.

Mendes, 45, and Gosling, 38, now have two daughters – Esmeralda, four, and two-year-old Amada.

Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes said she was not thinking about becoming a mother until she met Ryan Gosling (PA Wire)

However, 2 Fast 2 Furious star Mendes told Women’s Health magazine she was not thinking about becoming a mother before she met Gosling.

She said: “It was the furthest thing from my mind. Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have… not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.”

Mendes’s film career began in the late 1990s with appearances in horror films such as Children of The Corn V: Fields Of Terror and Urban Legends: Final Cut.

She got her big break in 2001’s Training Day and later earned roles in Hitch and Ghost Rider.

Mendes said motherhood has taken over her Hollywood career.

She said: “I felt a lack of ambition if I can be honest. I feel more ambitious in the home right now than I do in the workplace.”