The model and wife of actor Matthew McConaughey wrote that her rancher dad taught her to “not be impressed by a ‘thing,’ instead by substance”
Camila Alves McConaughey is reflecting on the meaningful advice her father gave her before she met and married her husband of 12 years, Matthew McConaughey.
To mark Father’s Day on Sunday, June 16, the former model, 41, shared a lengthy Instagram post in which she recalled the sage advice her father gave her about love — and about wanting connection over material possessions — more than 20 years ago.
Calling her dad a “ranch man” and “man of the land” who taught her to “not be impressed by a ‘thing,’ instead by substance,” Camila recalled a time when a very wealthy man proposed to her, long before Matthew, 54, came into her life.
View this post on Instagram
“I once got proposed by a Prince, a man of fortune beyond lands, a man, who if I accepted his proposal to marry, would’ve changed the status of my whole family for generations to come,” she wrote in the caption alongside a photo of her and her dad gazing at each other. “Feeling the weight of not being a decision just for me, I sat down to talk to my dad, he quietly listened, and his first question was… ‘Do you love him?’ ”
The Pantalones founder recalled answering her dad: ” ‘I am not sure, but I do like him a lot and I think the love could grow.’ ”
After also telling her father she could not see herself having a child with the man, he said simply: “Then you have your answer,” she wrote.
“He then went on to quote once again something he had said to me earlier in my life that really shook me,” Camila continued. ” ‘If you marry a man for only the material things he has then you are a high class prostitute to me.’ ” She previously shared this same quote with PEOPLE in 2017.
“I know it sounds harsh, but I thought about it throughout my life when and where I met many men that had a lot of material wealth and access but lacked true soul and morals,” she wrote, before recalling the moment when Matthew finally met her father — and he had no idea who the actor was.
As Camila put it, her father is the person in her life who gave her the tools to find a good partner in life, Matthew.
“Thank you dad,” she finished her Father’s Day post. “It was all the learnings that got me to Matthew the best father for our 3 kids honestly one of the best fathers I have ever meet! It is beautiful and a blessing to see! Beyond grateful 🙏🏽.”
In another post on Sunday, the mom of three also celebrated her husband with a heartfelt Instagram Stories tribute that featured a wide-shot photo of Matthew walking shirtless on the beach with their children: Levi, 15, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.
Camila and Matthew first met in 2006. In a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, the actor revealed that it was love at first sight for him when the two saw each other from across the room in a club.
“As l was trying to get [her] attention across the room, I went in my head, ‘This is not the kind of woman you call over across the room, McConaughey. Get your ass out of your chair and go get her.’ Which I did,” he added.
