Eva Mendes opens up on brother’s death

Eva Mendes’ brother’s death brought their family closer.

The ‘Training Day’ star was left devastated when Juan Carlos Mendez died of cancer in April, and she admitted the week he was laid to rest and she and partner Ryan Gosling welcomed their second child, Amada, into the world was both "intense" and "kind of beautiful" as the whole family were together.

She said: "Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with. So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have them. And then they were there for me when Amada was born. We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heartbreaking, but also kind of beautiful."

Eva, 42, and 35-year-old Ryan opted to give their second child the same first name as their older daughter, 22-month-old Esmeralda’s middle name.

But the ‘Hitch’ actress doesn’t think that is odd as it is a normal thing to do in "true Latin fashion" and the name held particular significance for her and her family.

She told Latina magazine: "My grandmother’s name is Amada, and Esmeralda Amada is the name of our oldest. 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.

"In true Latin fashion, we reuse names all the time. I used to know five sisters that were all Maria del Carmen, Maria Elena, Maria Liliana…

"I actually told Ryan, ‘This is common in Latin culture, so it wouldn’t be crazy.’ So we went with Amada because it was something we kept going back to. 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.’ "