Eva Mendes discusses motherhood on 'Ellen'

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Eva Mendes is thrilled to be a new mother.

The 40-year-old actress opened up about daughter Esmeralda in an interview with Ellen on Wednesday. Mendes and partner Ryan Gosling welcomed the baby in September, and the star told host Ellen DeGeneres parenthood has been wonderful but draining.

"You know, we're getting the hang of it, the sleeping thing, but yeah I'm exhausted and it's the best," she shared. "Really, I'm so incredibly tired. I thought I was tired before at times, but no. Nothing like this, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

Mendes and Gosling met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines, and have maintained a low-profile relationship since 2011. The actress said she and the 34-year-old actor kept her pregnancy a secret in order to guard their family's privacy.

"I think just early on, we decided it's going to be so hard for her to have privacy," she related. "We thought, 'Well, this is the first opportunity we can give her to protect her,' and so that I had a nice calm pregnancy, which I did."

Mendes last appeared alongside Christina Hendricks in Gosling's directorial debut, Lost River. Gosling most recently starred in Only God Forgives, and is scheduled for The Nice Guys and a new Terrence Malick film.