When Matthew McConaughey moved with his wife Camila Alves and their kids from noted LA-area beach town Malibu to Austin, Texas ten years ago, it seemed like a good fit. Alves spoke out about how they didn’t have a ton of privacy thanks to McConaughey’s stardom in tinseltown and Texas offered a lot of opportunity for a fresh start. But in some more recent comments the mom of three clarified her stance on when they first moved.
In fact, while the paparazzi-on-the-doorstep piece might be true, it was only one piece of the puzzle. In fact, Alves said she was very happy in Southern California, but marriage in general is a compromise and living there also came with drawbacks, as noted prior. She told Southern Living:
We were living a happy life in Malibu. We had a beautiful house that we’d built together and put a lot of love and care into. We were raising our kids there. I was growing everything in the yard. I had bees making honey.
Most people who casually follow A-lister movie stars probably know Matthew McConaughey is a Texan through and through. So, when he and his family made the big move away from The Golden State, it really seemed to make sense. Yet, while the family is happily ensconced in their lives their years later, with McConaughey even advocating for more filming to happen in Texas, it sounds like it wasn't such an easy decision at first for his wife.
She was content with their life in CA, but she told the outlet that when she and her husband were visiting his mother, it became very clear to her that the Malibu lifestyle wasn't enough. She told the story of their move, tying it to something she calls the "gravity" of Texas.
How Camila Alves Realized She Was Moving To Texas
Matthew McConaughey previously spoke about marriage and people changing over time, and it sounds like that's what happened when the couple decided to move. The two were visiting in Texas and stopped at a red light when the actor said Alves blurted out a question that would change everything:
You want to move here, don’t you?
This was 12 years ago, and he told the magazine that it took a hot second, but he bashfully, eventually said one word that would change everything: "Yep." Unfortunately, her response, though humorous, may not have been what he'd hoped initially. The actor said once he admitted his dream, his wife said, "You son of a bitch." It only took her a second though to compose herself and she agreed to take the plunge, telling him, "Let's do it."
McConaughey admitted in the profile that when they moved home, it all felt familiar to him, but it was a brand new landscape for his family and it took Alves time to adjust. Now, though, Texas is her home. She said of the place:
We can travel all over the world but the moment I land in Texas, the gravity just comes down, my shoulders relax, I know I'm home.
For McConaughey, the beauty of returning home was more about finding that ritual he'd lost during his time in California and building his family life around that familiarity.
Time slowed down. The clock was right, the body clock. And part of that is ritual; part of that is just the distance between places and the way people move. But it’s also the hospitality, the courtesy, the common sense, the lack of drama.
In short, Texas eventually worked out.
A rash of celebrities have left Los Angeles in recent years. Kelly Clarkson wanted a fresh start in New York after her divorce and wanted to be closer to her North Carolina family. Modern Family's Ariel Winter left Hollywood on a whim during the pandemic. Alexa PenaVega and Carlos PenaVega left because work was tough and he was having trouble landing gigs. There are myriad reasons celebrities try out new locations, but for Matthew McConaughey, it sound like there was a pull. It took some time, but that pull eventually called to Camila Alves, too.
