Camila Alves is setting the record straight on husband Matthew McConaughey’s seemingly “laidback” reputation.
The model rejected his casual persona on Tuesday, clarifying that her partner is actually a “very organized, very minimalistic, very on time [and] very prepared” person.
“He’s actually the opposite [of what people think], and he’s like his mom, [Mary McCabe],” Alves, 41, said on Southern Living’s “Biscuits & Jam” podcast.
“He gets a lot of those traits from her,” she continued, noting that she was surprised when she began dating the actor, 53, and realized he didn’t smoke.
“[He] had this image of getting high … no shirt, whatever,” Alves recalled. “Which I’m like … ‘What is this vision coming from?'”
Elsewhere in the episode, she accused McCabe, 91, of putting her through the wringer when she began dating the “Interstellar” star in 2006.
“She did all these things when I first came in the picture, right?” the designer told listeners of the “tricky” dynamic. “She was really testing me. I mean, really testing me.”
Alves recalled McCabe referring to her by “Matthew’s ex-girlfriends’ names” and speaking “broken Spanish” to her.
The “Kids BBQ Championship” host eventually realized her future mother-in-law “wanted [her] to fight back,” so she brought her “spicy Brazilian, Latin side” to their interactions and let McCabe “have it.”
She gushed, “Then from that day on, that night on, we have the most amazing relationship, and I have so much respect for her. She has so much respect for me.”
Alves often praises McCabe on social media, recently wishing her a happy Mother’s Day with a touching Instagram tribute.
“You teach me daily for this last few years since moving in with us, some lessons outside of my growing up values some that I need some that I don’t,” Alves wrote in May. “But lessons I will carry for the rest of my journey!
“You surprise me constantly,” she concluded. “Love you.”
Alves has been married to McConaughey since June 2012, and the duo share three children — son Levi, 15, daughter Vida, 13, and son Livingston, 10.
