Eva Mendes sparks marriage speculation after showing off tattoo dedicated to longtime partner Ryan Gosling

The couple has been together since 2011 and share two daughters

Eva Mendes has sparked speculation that she and Ryan Gosling may have secretly gotten married with a tattoo dedicated to her longtime partner.

On Tuesday, the Hitch star, 48, who has been dating Gosling since 2011, shared a photo of the ink on Instagram. In the photo, Mendes is seen wearing a strapless yellow dress and blue headband showing off a tattoo on her wrist that reads “de Gosling” in script.

The tattoo may have a deeper meaning than just a sweet tribute to Mendes’ longtime boyfriend. Elle notes that, in Hispanic culture, when a woman marries a man, she often adds his last name to hers using “de” or “of”.

Mendes, who is notoriously private about her life with Gosling, did not offer any additional clues about the status of their relationship.

However, in the comments, fans speculated that the tattoo may be a hint that the couple tied the knot, with one person writing: “Did you guys marry???” while another said: “Are they married?”

This is not the first time Mendes’ wrist tattoo has prompted curiosity about the couple’s relationship. The actor sparked similar responses from fans when she first showed off the permanent tribute in September in an Instagram photo of herself holding flowers.

At the time, Mendes’ followers praised the “beautiful” tattoo dedicated to The Notebook star, with one person writing: “I’m loving the de Gosling tattoo.”

The couple first met in 2011 when they played on-screen love interests in the film The Place Beyond the Pines. They welcomed their first daughter Esmeralda Amada in 2014 and second daughter Amada Lee in 2016.

Mendes previously shared a tribute to her longtime love in August, sharing that she has a photo of Gosling set as the background on her phone. While fans enjoyed the sweet insight into their relationship, Mendes previously revealed that she prefers not to post photos of Gosling or their children on social media because she has a “clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids”.

However, in July, Mendes offered some details about the family’s life during an interview with Byrdie. She told the publication that the most important thing to her and Gosling is making sure that their children grow up feeling loved and like they are “enough”.

“Hopefully Ryan and I are doing the work by just loving them, completely loving them, and doing most of that work for them so that they grow up feeling like they’re enough,” she said. “That’s the one thing that’s really important to me. Because once they feel like they’re enough, no matter what they do, no matter what they end up doing, that will feed into every area of your life. Especially into how attractive you feel, or any of that stuff.”

In an interview with Forbes in June, the actor also revealed that there are “no gender-specific roles” in her and Gosling’s relationship, a dynamic she said she feels is important for their children to see.

“I’m not an amazing cook - I leave that to Ryan,” she explained. “Hopefully it’s showing my girls that there are no gender-specific roles that one must take on and that we are partners in this and that we’re all partners in this, not just Ryan and I, but our children as well.”

Mendes shared a sweet tribute to Gosling in October as well, when she posted a photo from the actor’s Gucci campaign. “Umm… YES PLEASE,” she wrote in the caption.

The Independent has contacted a representative for Mendes for comment.