Eva Mendes thinks marriage is "not personal".

The 'Hitch' actress - who has been dating Peruvian filmmaker George Augusto for nearly a decade - has an aversion to tying the knot because she thinks the institution is "archaic" and not a romantic thing to do.

She told media: "It's not personal. There are all these wedding shows and it's so over-the-top, it's so not about what it should be about.

"I'm not like anti-marriage or the institution for other people. I love the idea of a union, that's very beautiful. I just don't think it should be a piece of paper because society tells me to.

"It's a very old fashioned archaic kind of thing. We did it for land originally, how unromantic is that?"

The 37-year-old beauty admitted seeing older, unmarried people in love and referring to their partners can be "really sexy".

She added: "I actually think it's really sexy to be with someone in their 50s or 60s and be like 'that's my boyfriend'. But I think husband and wife are very unsexy words."