Eva Mendes recalls early dating phase with husband Ryan Gosling

Eva Mendes is opening up about what she and now-husband Ryan Gosling bonded over when they started dating.

“I always thought it was a Cuban thing that we love to clean, and we love a clean kitchen,” Mendes, 51, said in a recent interview with New Beauty.

“Some of my best memories from when I was little are of my mom cleaning the house over the weekend. She’d be playing a record super loudly, and it would wake me up. There was the smell of Pine-Sol and the sounds of her singing to El Puma.”

When The Place Beyond the Pines costars Mendes and Gosling began dating in 2011, she learned about Gosling's passion for the same: cleanliness.

“He would come over. He just loved it. When my family was around, we would literally take over the kitchen. It had to be clean.”

“It was a bonding experience,” the former actress added.

Mendes and Gosling now share daughters Esmeralda Amada, 10, and Amada Lee, 9.