Matthew McConaughey reveals why he married Camila Alves after two kids

Matthew McConaughey has admitted fear once kept him from marrying his longtime partner, Camila Alves.

In a recent appearance on Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom podcast, the Interstellar star he was pushed to marry after a surprising question from his young son Levi.

Before tying the knot with Alves in 2012, the 55-year-old actor dated her for almost six years and welcomed two children, Levi, 17, and Vida, 15.

“My son comes to me at four years old and says, ‘Why isn’t Mama McConaughey?’” McConaughey recalled.

“I was like, God, did your mom put you with this? It’s a great question, but I mean, we’re not because we’re not married. When you get married, you switch your name. Okay. And then he just listened and all of a sudden he goes, ‘Are you scared?’ I’m four years old, dude. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I guess I am.’”

The actor then turned to a pastor and older men for advice. “My pastor goes, ‘Let me just ask you this, Mr. Risk Taker. What’s the bigger risk? Carrying on like you’re going, or taking the deeper dive into the sacrament covenant of marriage… a covenant between you and her and God? That will be a whole new adventure in itself.’”

McConaughey admitted, “I was like, oh, the getting married’s a bigger risk.”

He added that marriage became his conscious choice, “I didn’t want to do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do. I didn’t want to do it by the book.”

The pair later welcomed their third kid, son Livingston, 12, in 2013.