Ryan Gosling paid tribute to his partner Eva Mendes as he accepted his Golden Globes award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in La La Land.

Talk in front of the Golden Globes audience at The Beverly Hilton hotel, Gosling said: “I just would like to try and thank one person properly, and say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one 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.”

Ryan Gosling added: “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. Sweetheart, thank you.”

He continued: “To my daughters, I love you. And if I may, I would like to dedicate this to the memory of Eva’s brother, Juan Carlos Mendes.”

The couple secretly married away from public eyes, they have two daughters Amada and Esmeralda, and have had a tough time after Eva Mendes was left devastated when Juan Carlos Mendez died of cancer in April.

Talking to Latina magazine, Eva Mendes said: “Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with. So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have them. And then they were there for me when Amada was born.  “We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heartbreaking, but also kind of beautiful.”

Eva MendesGolden GlobesRyan Goslingtribute