All About Ryan Gosling's Mom, Donna Gosling

Get to know the 'Barbie' actor's mom, Donna, who accompanied him to the 2024 Oscars

Get to know Ryan Gosling's mom.

The Barbie actor is the son of Donna and Thomas Gosling, who divorced when he was a teenager.

Donna recently attended the Oscars with Gosling, who stole the show with his epic performance of "I'm Just Ken" from the Greta Gerwig-directed movie. Her appearance at the Oscars is just one of the many ways she's championed her son's career over the years.

Gosling has spoken about his mom's support and what it's meant to him since he was a kid, especially in the wake of his parents' split when he was 13.

The Oscar nominee also credits his mom for helping him find his passion for acting at a young age. When speaking at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January 2024, Gosling paid tribute to Donna, who he said "found [his] weak spot" in acting as a child and homeschooled him for a year "to show me how to create my own story."

Read on to learn more about Ryan Gosling's mom Donna.

Related: All About Ryan Gosling's Sister, Mandi Gosling

His mom and dad share two children

Gosling has an older sister, Mandi Gosling, who was born about three years before Gosling. The Oscar-nominated actor and his sister share a special bond, which Gosling has opened up about on various occasions. During an October 2011 interview with The Independent, Gosling expanded on his relationship with his Mandi, noting that she was his “best friend and my hero growing up.” 

His mom and dad divorced when he was 13

When Gosling was 13 years old, his parents divorced. Following their parents' split, Gosling and his sister were raised by Donna in Ontario, Canada. The actor once compared his own life to the 2014 movie Lost River, a film about a single mother. In 2015, he told The Guardian that he sees “a visualisation of my emotions at that time. Everything demolished.”

In October 2011, Gosling told The Independent that growing up in a house full of girls taught him how to “think like a girl.” He added, “I was literally raised by my mother and my sister. And I feel like I wouldn’t know how to think any other way."

He grew up in a Mormon household

Gosling has previously spoken about his parents' Mormon background, telling The Guardian in 2007 that he was "brought up pretty religious."

"My mother admits it: She says, you were raised by a religious zealot," he told the publication. "She's different now, but at the time, it was a part of everything - what they ate, how they thought."

Related: Ryan Gosling Is Secretly an Amazing Pie Baker Thanks to His Mom

Donna homeschooled Ryan Gosling as a kid

Donna withdrew Gosling from elementary school at age 10 following a behavioral incident and opted to homeschool him instead. “It really did turn things about for me,” Gosling told British GQ in January 2022.

“I had a great teacher, though," he continued. "My mother was so good at it she became a teacher."

In fact, when it came time for Gosling's own kids to enroll in school, he noted that Donna was quick to offer a helping hand when needed. "She was the perfect person to ask for help when we needed it," the dad of two said.

During his second year on The Mickey Mouse Club in the early '90s, his former costar Justin Timberlake said his mom looked after Gosling while Donna had to be in Canada.

"His mother had to keep her job in Canada the second year that we were on the television show and my mom was his guardian for like six months," Timberlake said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2011. "So we actually lived together when we were that age... we were probably a little closer than the rest of the kids that were on the show."

Donna has accompanied Ryan Gosling on several red carpets

Gosling's mom is a red carpet staple! Donna has accompanied the actor at numerous events over the course of his acclaimed career, the most recent being the 2024 Oscars on March 10. The Barbie actor walked the red carpet alongside his mom and sister before sitting alongside his sister during the ceremony.

Of course, that wasn't the first time Gosling made the Oscars a family night out. In 2017, Mandi was his date for the ceremony when he was nominated for Best Actor for La La Land. Ten years prior, Gosling brought Donna with him to the award show when he earned his first-ever Oscar nod in 2007.

Donna once received a beauty compliment from Meryl Streep

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in January 2017, Gosling recalled a hilarious story about bringing his mother to the 2007 Oscars, when he earned his first Best Actor nod for his role in Half Nelson.

Referring to a 2007 photo with his mom and her beehive hairdo, Gosling said she "was convinced by her friend that beehives were gonna be all the rage." However, it "turned out to be the opposite" because "it was a natural hair vibe that year."

Noting how his mother kept sinking in her chair after blocking Rachel Weisz's view, he said he enlisted some help from Meryl Streep. "I didn’t know what to do ’cause I was — I wanted to have a nice night, so I didn’t know Meryl Streep but she was sitting next to me and I said in a commercial break, ‘Would you mind just telling my mom you like her hair?’ ”

Streep’s reaction to his request?

“And she was like, ‘I got this,’ ” Gosling recalled. “And then the commercial went and she goes, ‘Do you know, I was gonna do a beehive and I wish I had.’ And my mom was like, raise the roof all night.”

Related: Ryan Gosling Reveals He Asked Meryl Streep to Compliment His Mom's Hair at the 2007 Oscars

Donna is a grandmother

Donna became a grandmother when Gosling welcomed his first child, daughter Esmeralda Amada, with Eva Mendes on Sept. 12, 2014. On April 29, 2016, the actor gave his mom another grandchild when he and Mendes welcomed their second child, daughter Amada Lee.

Related: Ryan Gosling Praises 'Girl of My Dreams' Eva Mendes During Santa Barbara Film Festival Speech

Donna remarried in Italy

Donna wed Valerio Attanasio in 2018 during a destination wedding in Italy. Gosling recalled the experience when appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that October.

"He's Roman, so I got to meet all of his Roman family which was amazing," Gosling told the host. "During the service, there were a lot of older Italian women just whispering to me about food," he joked, recalling their conversations about tortellini and smoked mozzarella.

Burt Reynolds had a crush on his mom

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in May 2024, Gosling recalled working with Burt Reynolds on the 1996 movie Frankenstein and Me, noting that the actor had a little crush on him mom during filming.

"I thought he took a shine to me. I thought he thought there was something special about me. And then I realized that I have a really beautiful mom," Gosling said of his mom Donna.

"He was just kind of interested. It was like I was getting like a secondary shine. The real shine was for my mom. And I was like, 'Oh, this is secondary shine,' " the Notebook star went on.

"How long did it take you to figure that out?" Kimmel questioned, as Gosling joked, "I wish I had found out sooner," clarifying that his mom "loved" the attention despite "nothing" ever happening between her and Reynolds.

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