Eva Mendes says falling in love with Ryan Gosling made her want children

Eva Mendes was never that attracted to the concept of motherhood -- until she met her future-partner, Ryan Gosling.

The couple now shares two young children, Esmeralda, 4, and Amada, 2, and are notoriously private about their personal life. But Mendes, 45, recently shared her thoughts on motherhood, Gosling's support and how her career has changed after having children in an interview with Women's Health.

She described that in the past, being a mother was "the furthest thing from my mind," but then, "Ryan Gosling happened."

"I mean, falling in love with him," she told the outlet. "Then it made sense for me to have … not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him."

As parents, since both Gosling and Mendes are high profile actors, Mendes says the two work to bring sense of normalcy to their children's lives. She says fame is "super scary" when raising children.

"I don't let them see me put attention to how I dress," she continued. "They've never seen me get ready for something; they've never seen me at work."

"I'm just Mom," she added. "And I'm more than happy to just be Mom."

Mendes said when she became a mother, her priorities shifted in terms of her acting career. "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," she said.

She shared that she is content with her full-time role as a mother to her two young daughters -- but still gets a lot of help from her family.

"It's a village that helped us," she said. "My heart goes out to women who do this alone. I basically come from a single-parent household; although I love my dad, my mom mostly raised four of us on her own."

She attributes her drive and sense of appreciation to her hard working mother.

"We didn't have much when I was growing up," she told Women's Health. "My mother would say, 'As little as we have, there are so many people who have less.' She made me appreciate that from an early age."