Eva Mendes’ First Words on Her Brother’s Death and Daughter Amada’s Birth

Actress Eva Mendes has been on an emotional roller coaster this year.

The extremely private star lost her brother Carlos, 53, to cancer less than two weeks before her second daughter, Amada, was born in April.

Now, Mendes is opening up about the experience in the September 2016 issue of Latina magazine.

“Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with,” she explained. “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.”

“My older little girl [Esmeralda] is not yet 2 years old,” she said of her eldest daughter with Ryan Gosling. “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 how they chose Amada's name. “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.'”