Matthew McConaughey Says His Mom’s ‘Testing’ of Wife Camila Alves Was a ‘Rite of Passage’

The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ actor also noted that no one gets into ‘the McConaughey family easily.’ 

Does mother always know best? Matthew McConaughey said that his mom Kay McConaughey’s treatment of his wife, Camila Alves, was part of her “initiation” into his family. 

“My family is big on rites of passage and initiation, and you don’t get into the McConaughey family easily,” the Dallas Buyers Club actor, 53, told ET Canada on Thursday, September 21. “We test you. And even in our own family with my brothers and mother is one of us — me and my brothers get on our high horse about something.” 

Matthew then pointed out that he and his family “humbly wait, we make you cry, and then we pick you up and make your favorite drink — ‘You’re welcome back.’ So, there are initiations, rites of passage that my family’s always enjoyed.” 

The Oscar winner then recalled how Camila, 41, eventually had a breakthrough with his mother, whom the McConaughey’s affectionately call “Ma Mac.” 

“Camila goes, ‘I’m not asking your permission anymore.’ And basically, my mom was like, ‘There we go. That’s right,’” Matthew revealed. 

Last month, the Brazil native dropped a few bombshells about her mother-in-law during an interview on Southern Living’s “Biscuits & Jam” podcast. 

“She did all these things when I first came in the picture,” Camila noted. “She was really testing me. I mean, really testing me. She would call me by all of Matthew’s ex-girlfriends’ names, she would start speaking Spanish with me in a very broken way, kind of putting down a bit. I mean, all kinds of stuff [sic].” 

Despite initially getting the cold shoulder from her in-laws, Camila and Matthew have enjoyed a blissful marriage since tying the knot in 2012. They share three children together: sons Levi and Livingston and daughter Vida.

In 2021, Camila spoke exclusively with HollywoodLife about how she and the Interstellar star maintain a healthy marriage. 

“Relationships are work, but I choose love,” the designer said at the time. “I was actually thinking about it this morning, because you can go through a lot of things in a relationship, you can go through a lot of ups and downs, no relationship is perfect. It’s work. But when you’re doing the work, what do you choose? That’s the question that it’s really important for people to ask when you’re working in your relationship: What do you choose? And for me, I choose love and I choose growth.”