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For Matthew McConaughey, the moment he learned he would become a father was everything he had dreamed of, but when he shared the news with his mother, things took an unexpected turn.
“I always knew I wanted to be a father,” he said on “This Past Weekend with Theo Von,” adding that the real challenge was finding “a woman that you’re in love with and that you know is going to be a great mother.”
When he met Camila Alves, he found exactly that — but marriage wasn’t the immediate next step.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY SWEARS QUEEN-SIZE BED HELPED MARRIAGE OF 13 YEARS
Matthew McConaughey said he and Camila Alves didn’t want to get married just because it was what they were “supposed” to do. (Kevork Djansezian)
“Maybe that’s because my mom and dad were married three times and divorced twice, and her mom and dad were married two times and divorced three times … we had a track record for reason to go, ‘Well, I don’t know about this.’”
McConaughey said the two were thriving as a couple and weren’t interested in tying the knot just because others insisted they should.
“So, we’re rolling along … it’s going great, and we don’t want to get married because that’s just what you’re ‘supposed’ to do,” he said. “I don’t want to back into it because someone said, ‘Legally, it’s …’, no, bulls—, I want to want to. I wasn’t against it, but we were like, ‘We’re doing good.’”
Everything changed one night when McConaughey came home to a scene he didn’t realize was setting up a life-changing reveal — cheeseburgers on the grill, his favorite tequila poured and a gift.
Matthew McConaughey and Camilla Alves married in 2012. (Rick Kern/WireImage)
He opened the gift and found a sonogram. They cried “tears of joy” together, then they decided to call his mother to share the good news.
The moment he told her that they were expecting, the line fell silent.
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“Crickets,” he recalled. “Next thing you hear is, ‘No, no, no, no, no, Matthew! This is out of order! I didn’t raise you to do this. No, Matthew, you’re supposed to be married!’ And went on and on and on in a five-minute monologue and then hung up.”
McConaughey and Alves have three children: Levi, Livingston and Vida. (Rick Kern/Getty Images)
Ten minutes later, McConaughey’s phone rang again. His mother had called back and asked him to put her on speakerphone so she could speak to both him and Alves.
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“‘I would like to put some white-out over that last … I was being selfish, thinking about myself,’” she told them. “‘If you two are happy about it, I should be happy for you. It was not my place to be unhappy.’”
McConaughey said his mother soon apologized for her initial reaction to the pregnancy news. (Getty Images)
McConaughey said that moment helped reset everything, and he and Alves continued building their family.
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“So, we had two children before we got married,” he said, emphasizing that the journey unfolded exactly as it was meant to for them.
McConaughey and Alves married in 2012. Shortly after their wedding, the family moved from California to Texas.
The couple share three children: Levi, Vida and Livingston.
Fox News Digital reached out to McConaughey for comment.