It's probably not a shock that laidback, bohemian Matthew McConaughey's union with Camila Alves
isn't a Norman Rockwell portrait of the traditional American marriage.
But this stunning pair's relationship may be odder than you think.
Here's the truth about Matthew McConaughey's marriage.
Under her spell
Prior to meeting Camila Alves at an LA hotspot in 2006, Matthew McConaughey admitted he was
loving that bachelor life.
He told Playboy,
"I had a time in my life when I was fine going from here to there, bam-bam-bam, healthy,
fluent, single years."
But that all changed when he met the Brazilian-American stunner.
He remembered the first time he saw her, telling People,
"As I was trying to get that's attention, across the room, I went in my head, and I
was like this is not the kind of woman you call over across the room, McConaughey.
Get your ass out of the chair, and go get her."
Getting out of his chair and approaching the model turned out to be one of the best decisions
of his life, and McConaughey assured Playboy that he's been "very faithful" to his wife
ever since, adding,
"I like being under her spell.
I don't want to break that spell."
"And I've been wanting to go on a date with her for the last nine years.
And not with anybody else."
Back-to-back rejections
After meeting at that Hollywood nightclub, McConaughey told Howard Stern he invited Alves
back to his pad to have a drink and quote, "extend the night."
As the evening came to a close, Alves wanted to call a cab, but McConaughey insisted she
stay the night in a guest bedroom.
Alves agreed, but when the actor tried to make his move not once but twice, Alves rejected
him!
She wouldn't even agree to a second date, much less a kiss.
McConaughey kept at it, and after two more no's, she eventually agreed to date him.
As Us Weekly pointed out, at the time, McConaughey had two big films at the box office: We Are
Marshall and Failure to Launch, and despite his status as an international superstar,
Alves rejected him like he was a regular Joe.
Camila's ultimatum
After their fated first meeting in 2006, the couple began dating.
And they started their family soon afterwards, welcoming a son, Levi in 2008, and daughter,
Vida, in 2010.
And yet, McConaughey didn't propose to Alves until December 2011, a year before they welcomed
their second son, Livingston.
The actor explained the timeline, telling GQ,
"I had to get to the point where I saw [marriage] as more than just the thing to do.
I wanted to really want to."
"To me, marriage is an archaic and oppressive institution.
It should have been abolished years ago."
His thoughts were a bit odd, considering McConaughey also once told Cigar Aficionado that he actually
had felt the pressure of a quote, "clock ticking."
But McConaughey really let the cat out the bag when he said,
"And look, some of it had to do with her putting it on me.
It took her going, 'C'mon, Big Boy, Mr. Easygoing-We'll-Get-to-It-When-We-Get-to-It.
Either s--- or get off the pot.'"
"We kinda got it down, right?"
"Yes."
Let's just hope Camila's ultimatum doesn't backfire some day.
In sickness and in funk
According to Contact Music, McConaughey is a fan of going all-natural; the actor doesn't
wear cologne or deodorant.
He reportedly said,
"The women in my life, including my mother, have all said, 'Hey, your natural smell smells,
one, like a man, and, two, smells like you.'"
"The things that matter."
One of those women is likely his wife.
And we wouldn't be surprised to learn that she doesn't care about his body odor because
she can't smell it over her own personal aroma.
According to In Touch, when Alves was pregnant with their son, Levi, she would skip out on
regular showers.
One of Alves' business associates told the mag,
"[McConaughey] said he finally met a girl who can go without a shower for a week, someone
he can go mountain climbing and hiking with."
What the funk?
Paging rom-com McConaughey
"Matthew has a lot of great things that I will not be sharing with you."
Thanks to his top-notch acting capabilities, and his rugged good looks, McConaughey has
been tapped to play the lead in various rom-coms, from Steve Edison in The Wedding Planner,
to Benjamin Barry in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
But while he may effortlessly woo the ladies with his lovey-dovey lines, McConaughey is
far from being a real-life romantic, according to Alves.
"I just got lucky"
During an appearance on Inside the Actors Studio, Alves was asked to describe what McConaughey
is like, in comparison to his film roles.
She said,
"… people see him onscreen or out there in public in a certain way, and they have
this vision of him being this romantic and so passionate…
Sometimes I'm like, 'Who is this guy?
Can you be a little bit of that?'"
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