Eva Mendes buried brother days before becoming a mum again

Eva Mendes buried her brother days before she gave birth.

The actress' older sibling Juan Carlos, 53, died on 17 April (16), almost two years after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, as Eva and her partner Ryan Gosling were preparing to become parents for a second time.

He was remembered at a memorial on 26 April (16) at the Church of the Recessional in Glendale, California, and now Eva has broken her silence about the emotional week she lost her brother.

"Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with," she tells the new issue of Latina magazine. "Just to 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 (daughter) Amada was born.

"We had a funeral service for him (Juan Carlos) and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heartbreaking, but also kind of beautiful."

At the time of Juan Carlos' death, Eva shared a picture of herself and her brother, taken at a Stand Up to Cancer benefit event in January, 2015, on social media, simply captioning the sweet snap with a heart emoji.

Earlier this year (16), the 2 Fast 2 Furious star also shared a throwback photo of her sibling, with a caption which read: "My brother Juan Carlos. Sending him so much love today as he continues his battle with cancer. I love you big brother."