Camila Alves Says Matthew McConaughey’s Mom ‘Tested’ Her, Called Her By His Ex’s Names

Model Camila Alves recently revealed just how far her mother-in-law went to “test” her when she and Matthew McConaughey first started seeing each other.

Alves made the revelation during Tuesday’s episode of the “Southern Living: Biscuits and Jam” podcast, saying that although she now has a very close relationship with Mary McCabe, things weren’t always as easy between them.

“She did all these things when I first came in the picture, right? She was really testing me,” Alves said. “I mean, really testing me.”

“She would call me by all of Matthew’s ex-girlfriends’ 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,” Alves — who hails from Brazil — explained.

Alves said that things finally came to a head when the two traveled together to Istanbul — a trip she had to take for work – and had invited McCabe to come along in an effort to reach out to her.

“I got a job to go to Istanbul to go do a fashion show there. And that job, comes with the perks of you get another first class ticket, you get another night’s hotel room, you get this, you get the driver. And I was like, ‘Ma Mac, you’re gonna come with me.’ The whole way there, the whole plane ride to Istanbul, she was telling me all these stories and putting all these things in my head. Enough that, when we landed, I was like, ‘Okay, all right. Let me buckle up. Let me get ready for this situation.'”

It wasn’t until a few days into the trip that she saw another side of “Ma Mac,” and suddenly everything changed. “About day three, I was taking her to her room, and she got into this whole other thing that it’s not my place to share, and she starts crying, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ You know, ‘Ma Mac!’ and feeling so sorry. And as I put her to bed, I look at her and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. She’s full of s***.'”

“So I just flip it on her and brought my spicy Brazilian, Latin side, and I let her have it. So I went back at her, and we had it back and forth, back and forth,” the model continued, noting that it soon became apparent that McCabe had simply been waiting for her to show some spine and give as good as she got. “And then at the end, she just looked at me and she was like, ‘OK. Now you’re in.'”

“You passed the test,” interviewer Sid Evans replied with a laugh, and Alves agreed.

“All she wanted was for me to fight back. And 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. I mean, it can get tricky sometimes, you know? But we always end with a good laugh and a joke,” she said.