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Ryan Gosling salutes Eva Mendes in touching Golden Globes acceptance speech

Golden Globe winners
Winners at the 74th annual Golden Globes 02:30

Ryan Gosling usually stays quiet about his personal life, but he couldn’t accept his Golden Globe without acknowledging the family he’s started with longtime partner Eva Mendes.

On Sunday, Gosling was awarded with the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and he began his acceptance speech joking that he wished he could chop it into three pieces to share with his “La La Land” director, Damien Chazelle, and co-star, Emma Stone. 

Once the professional praise was out of the way, Gosling opened up with uncharacteristic candor, turning his attention to Mendes. 

“While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” Gosling said. 

The publicity-shy couple welcomed their second daughter in 2016 just a month after revealing that they were expecting. 

“If she hadn’t taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So, sweetheart, thank you,” he concluded before dedicating the award to Mendes’ late brother, Juan Carlos Mendes, who died of cancer last April. 

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