Matthew McConaughey and Wife Camila Reveal the Exact Moment They Decided to Leave L.A. and Move to Texas

Matthew McConaughey always knew there’s no place like Texas — and it didn’t take much convincing for his wife Camila Alves McConaughey to realize the same. 

The married couple of nearly 12 years open up about their decision to leave their “happy life” in Malibu, Calif. behind for a slower, more ritualistic lifestyle in the actor's home state, in Southern Living’s April 2024 cover story.

Matthew and Camila – who share sons Levi, 15, Livingston, 11, and daughter Vida, 14 – recall the decision coming naturally to the both of them after visiting Austin for several weeks amid a family crisis.

They were driving back from seeing Matthew’s mother when Camila, 41, says she couldn’t help but notice the “gravity” that Texas held for her husband throughout their trip.

While stopped at a red light, the Interstellar star, 54, remembers the Camila "blurted" out, "You want to move here, don’t you?” As if reading each other's minds, they simultaneously agreed that setting down permanent roots in Texas was what they were meant to do. 

After officially making the move with their children in 2014, the pair immediately noticed the positive impact life outside of Hollywood had on their family.

“Time slowed down,” Matthew tells the outlet. “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.”

For the True Detective actor, moving back to the Lone Star State was an easy adjustment. He grew up there – noting that he was “conceived” in Fort Davis – and later attended the University of Texas at Austin. Already having friends and family in the area felt like a nice cushion for the Pantalones Tequila co-founder following the move. 

While Camila now feels that the “gravity is right” in their Texas home, she and Matthew admit it wasn’t as easy for her to find her footing at first. The model and entrepreneur, who is originally from Itambacuri, Brazil, said that she was finally able to adjust once she realized the similarities that her home country and Texas share. 

“We grew up saying ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘No, sir’ or — as I should say — ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘Yes, sir.’ It takes me right back to how I was raised,” she explains.

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The family’s home life in Texas is also different, Matthew adds: “Ritual came back, whether that was Sunday church, sports, dinner together as a family every night, or staying up after that telling stories in the kitchen, sitting at the island pouring drinks and nibbling while retelling them all in different ways than we told them before.”

Read the full cover story for Southern Living's April 2024 issue on SouthernLiving.com and on newsstands March 22.