The pair shocked fans with a joint appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 5 — their first in over a decade. Mendes, 52, was just there to support her man from backstage, but Gosling, 45, had other plans, organizing an on-air surprise for her birthday.
Gosling then had the audience serenade Mendes with a rendition of “Happy Birthday.” As a staff member led a blushing Mendes onstage, Gosling joked, “Here’s the thing, you might find me in the Hudson River tomorrow.”
Mendes looked stunning in the same striped cardigan that Gosling wore on Jeopardy! last week while promoting his new film, Project Hail Mary. She paired the cardigan with wide-legged jeans and a John Lennon and Yoko Ono t-shirt, jokingly asking if her segment would be “cut, right?”
“No!” Fallon shot back. “It’s your birthday.”
Fallon insisted the whole spectacle, which included a marching band performance of “Happy Birthday” and a whole lot of confetti, was all Gosling’s doing.
Mendes kissed the actor’s cheek multiple times, and the two held hands as Fallon sent viewers to bed.
The famously private couple haven’t been spotted at an event together since SXSW in 2015, in support of Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River.
Before that, you’d have to go back to 2012, when they walked the red carpet for the movie that started it all, The Place Beyond the Pines. The co-stars met on the set of the drama and have been together ever since.
The couple shares two daughters, Esmeralda, 11, and Amada, 9. Mendes stepped back from acting to raise their children. While she and Gosling have sparked marriage rumors over the years, they have not publicly confirmed their relationship status.