They initially kept the fact that they were expecting a baby together very private, but now, Eva Mendes is finally opening up about her daughter with Ryan Gosling.

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The 40-year-old actress, who appeared on the Dec. 3 episode of The Ellen Show, made her first big public appearance since giving birth to Esmeralda Amada, and finally revealed why she and Gosling kept the pregnancy such a huge secret-which even involved Mendes lying straight to DeGeneres herself when she asked her about it after rumors first surfaced back in February.

"Not really because it was so early on!" Mendes said after DeGeneres called her a liar. 'All moms will understand, you're not supposed to tell anybody during your first...well certainly not the world...in your first trimester. My mother didn't even know yet. So that would have been an awkward phone call. 'Hey mom, did you catch Ellen today?' Um, oops!'"

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"I think just early on, we decided it's going to be so hard for her to have privacy," Mendes added about the decision to keep the news under wraps for as long as possible. "We thought this is the first opportunity we can give her to protect her and so that I had a nice calm pregnancy, which I did."

After then showing a hilarious fake photo of her daughter (who has still not been seen in public), Mendes then opened up about how exhausting being a mom was-but admitted that it was also extremely worth it.

"Really, I'm so incredibly tired," she said. "I thought I was tired before at times, but no. Nothing like this, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

Watch Mendes' appearance here.

Tags: ryan gosling Eva Mendes