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Matthew McConaughey addressed the backlash to his mom’s troubling “initiations” for his now-wife, Camila Alves.
The “Greenlights” author appeared on an episode of the “Whine Down With Jana Kramer” podcast, which was released on Monday, where he spoke about the trials his mom put Alves through before the two got married.
Alves brought up the ways her mother-in-law, who the family calls Ma Mac, would test her during a stop by Southern Living’s “Biscuits & Jam” podcast in August.
“She would call me by all of Matthew’s ex-girlfriend’s names, she would start speaking Spanish with me in a very broken way, kind of putting me down a bit. I mean, all kinds of stuff,” the model said at the time.
Despite the initial conflict, Alves did add that she and Ma Mac now have “the most amazing relationship.”
McConaughey said on the podcast over the weekend that his mom was “looking out” for him by putting Alves to the test.
Jason Merritt via Getty Images
“She tested my feelings and tested the woman that I had the feelings for. In the big picture, that’s pretty cool, actually,” he said.
“Camila wasn’t wounded about it either,” he said of his mom’s behavior. “We say this all the time in my family, ‘What tickles us may bruise others.’”
He also defended his mom’s behavior during an interview with ET Canada last month, telling the outlet that his family “is big on rites of passage and initiation, and you don’t get into the McConaughey family easily.”
“We test you,” he said. “Oh, my family. We humbly wait, we make you cry ‘uncle’ and then we pick you up and make your favorite drink and go ‘Welcome back.’ So there are initiations, rites of passage that my family’s always enjoyed.”
“And when did Camila break through with [my mom?] When Camila goes, ‘I’m not asking your permission anymore,’” the actor continued. “And basically, my mom was like, ‘There we go. That’s right.’”