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Eva Mendes gets real about mom guilt: It's 'just kind of always there'

She's an actress, entrepreneur and clothing designer, but Eva Mendes is also a mother, and like so many other busy moms, she finds the work-home balance anything but easy.
/ Source: TODAY

She's an actress, entrepreneur and clothing designer, but Eva Mendes is also a mother to two young girls, and like so many other busy parents, she finds balancing work and home life anything but easy.

And no matter how she divides her time, one thing remains the same: mom guilt.

Eva Mendes Launches Her Fall Collection With New Extended Sizes
Eva Mendes launches her fall collection with new extended sizes at New York & Company in Los Cerritos Center on September 14, 2017.Getty Images

"Oh my God, nobody warns you about the guilt that you feel when you do work!" Mendes recently told E! News. "I don't know how I find balance, because I think it is like a day-to-day kind of struggle, you know?"

She and her partner of six years, Ryan Gosling, raise daughters Esmeralda, 3, and Amada, 1, together, but sharing the responsibilities doesn't mean the guilt goes away.

It persists no matter how essential the distraction from her mom duties is.

"I'm all for obviously taking care of myself — that's how I can take care of them of course — but that guilt that is just kind of always there," the 43-year-old said of attending to her self-care routines. "It's like, 'Ugh, this is gonna be there forever now.'"

But like all parents, she pushes through the guilt when she needs to and finds ways around it when she can.

For instance, even though Gosling was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work in "La La Land" during the last awards season, Mendes was nowhere to be seen on the red carpet.

"What people don’t know about me is that I love being home,” Mendes revealed in the April issue of Shape magazine. "Instead of hitting the red carpet, I’d rather be with our girls."