Matthew McConaughey has revealed fear kept him from marrying his longtime partner and mother of his children, Camila Alves.
The Oscar-winner, 55, has been in a relationship with his now-wife, 42, since 2006, and the pair welcomed two children, Levi, 17, and Vida, 15, before they finally tied the knot in 2012.
They later welcomed second son Livingston, 12, in 2013.
Appearing on Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom podcast, the Dallas Buyers Club star said he was prompted to propose when his son Levi asked him why his mother had a different surname to them.
Matthew McConaughey said: ‘My son comes to me at four years old and says, “Why isn’t Mama McConaughey?”
‘I’m going through my head. You’re four, dude. I sat there. I was like, “God, did your mom put you with this?”
‘It’s a great question, but I mean, we’re not because we’re not married. When you get married, you switch your name. Okay.
‘And then he just got listened and all of a sudden he goes, “Are you scared?” I’m four years old, dude. And I was like, “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Matthew McConaughey, who is deeply religious, said he went to a pastor for advice, saying: ‘I remember going to a pastor and talking to a lot of different elder men who had had long-term relationships, were married for decades and stuff, and and and my pastor goes, “Let me just ask you this, Mr. Risk Taker. What’s the bigger risk?
‘”Carrying on like you’re going, it’s going well, or taking the deeper dive into the sacrament covenant of marriage which should be a covenant between you and her and God. The trilogy will go forward.
‘That will be a whole new adventure in itself. Are you what? What’s a bigger risk? I was like, “Oh, the getting married’s a bigger risk.”
‘He was like, he didn’t say another word. That was part of why I made the affirmative action and was what I was looking for as a way to play offense with that choice.
‘I didn’t want to do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s time. We’ve been dating for this long. We got engaged. I didn’t want to do it by the book.’
This comes after the actor revealed he spent nearly a decade keeping some distance from his mother Kay because she was leaking sensitive details about him to news reporters.
The Academy Award-winning actor and his mother, 93, spoke with People about the complicated dynamic in play after Matthew came to the realization that his mother was violating his trust with the leaks.
The Dazed and Confused alum said that he didn’t completely sever the relationship, but took a much more guarded approach when sharing information with his mother.
‘We had about an eight-year period where I had to have short conversations with her on our Sunday phone calls,’ the Dallas Buyers Club star said, ‘because she was sharing a lot of that information.’
The True Detective star said he didn’t need to investigate much to suss out where the leaks were coming from.
‘I’d tell her something on Sunday between son and mom, and Tuesday I’d read about it in the news or see it in the local paper,’ Matthew McConaughey told the magazine.
Kay, who plays the mother of McConaughey’s character Kevin McKay in his new AppleTV+ thriller The Lost Bus, told the outlet of the tumultuous time: ‘We were on a hiatus.’
Matthew said that the tipping point came after Kay let reporters into his childhood home, and he watched footage of it days later on television.
Kay said: ‘I took people through the house and said, “Well, this is where Matthew slept” – Someone called him and said, “Are you watching what your mama’s doing?”‘
Kay added, ‘I was so proud that I was just telling the world.’
Matthew said he was irritated by the breach of privacy displayed by his mother, although that she had an amusing comeback when he broached the uncomfortable topic with her.
Matthew said , ‘I call her, she answers the phone. I go, “Mom, what’d you do?” She says, “What?” I said, “Don’t tell me, ‘What?'”