Eva Mendes is "proud" of her age

She said: "I was excited by the reaction because in no way do I think that person that left that comment about me getting old was being malicious. I do not think it was a malicious comment, but I think it’s more dangerous because it wasn’t malicious because it's just ingrained in society that getting older is something we should either fear or be ashamed of. And I think the whole thing about not asking a woman what her age is archaic. It's like you can ask me my age and I will happily tell you, I’ll be shocked, somewhat shocked. I'm about to turn 46 and that’s somewhat shocking to me. But I’m proud of that."

The 45-year-old actress - who has Esmeralda, five, and Amada, three, with her partner Ryan Gosling - feels "empowered" when she says she has 46 years of experience rather than says she is 46-years-old.

She added to People magazine: "I wanted to make sure to get back to that person because I had something to say and I felt like, look, you mean this, I don’t think it was malicious but you mean it kind of like an insult.” I want to show you that I take it as a compliment because I’m still here. And I have, you know, instead of saying I am 46, I wish we could change it and I wish I could say, ‘I have 46 years to me’ because in Spanish it’s very beautiful. It says you say, ‘Tengo cuarenta seis años’ I have 46 years and in English I know, it’s a little, you know it’s semantics but it’s important. It’s like I don’t feel 46 but I do feel like I have 46 years of experience to me. I just find that so empowering."