Matthew McConaughey: I couldn't talk to my mother for eight years
Watch: Matthew McConaughey and mother Kay open up on eight year estrangement
Matthew McConaughey has revealed he did not talk to his mother for eight years after she started sharing details of his private life with the media.
The Oscar-winning actor and his 88-year-old mother Kay have since rebuilt their relationship - but McConaughey has admitted that when he first became famous it drove a wedge between them.
The 51-year-old actor told Facebook Watch's Red Table Talk: "As soon as I got 'famous' after [1996's] A Time to Kill, I started to have my weekly Sunday call home to call my mother,. Mother wasn’t answering the phone. A fan of my fame was answering the phone.
“I was trying to find my own balance with fame and stuff, and I would share things with her and, you know, to whatever amount of innocence it was – we can not completely laugh at it – but some of the things I would share might show up in the six o’clock news three days later.”
He went on: “So there were years there that I would not share things with her because I was finding my own balance, building my own ship and I was like, ‘Look, Mom. Loose lips will sink ships. There are a lot of people that would like to know these things and it’s none of their business.’
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“I was not able to talk to her as my mom for about eight years and then I got my career stabilised enough.”
McConaughey appeared on the show - hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith and Willow Smith - alongside his mother, who admitted she had been, "enjoying his fame more than he was, I guess."
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The How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days star revealed that as he grew more comfortable with life in the spotlight, he was able to let his mother back in.
He said: "My boat was built well enough where I didn’t feel like she could sink it. We healed that up in 2004."
The Dallas Buyers Club star married wife Camila Alves in 2012 and they have three children: Levi, 12, Vida, 10, and Livingston, eight.
During the coronavirus pandemic Kay has moved in with the family.
McConaughey told ITV’s Lorraine: “My mother is around her grandkids every single day. That’s a great thing, that wouldn’t have happened unless she was forced to live with us.”
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