Matthew McConaughey is known for playing a charmer on screen, but his wife, Camila Alves, was initially resistant to his moves.
The duo first met in 2006 at a bar in Los Angeles where McConaughey was mixing up drinks for his friends. He invited Alves and his friends to join his table, and she did — but by herself.
“That night I spoke 25 minutes of the best Spanish I’ve ever spoken in my life,” McConaughey recalled in a January 2017 interview with Howard Stern. “She spoke Portuguese. I don’t think I ever understood Portuguese as well as I did that night. I was focused. It worked.”
Alves eventually left the club with McConaughey, but she put her foot down over a sleepover. “She’s like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go. I’m gonna get a cab.’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t do that. It’s way too late,’” he recalled. “’Take the guest bedroom.’”
The model did — and when her future husband checked on her later that night, she rebuffed his advances. She also said no when he asked her to go on a date the next day because it was her father’s birthday. After rejecting him two more times, she finally agreed to come over for dinner, and that — finally — won her over.
The couple welcomed son Levi and daughter Vida before they ultimately tied the knot in June 2012. Six months after their nuptials, Alves gave birth to their third child, son Livingston.
Keep scrolling for a look back at McConaughey and Alves’ complete relationship timeline.
