Camila Alves McConaughey is grateful to her father for an advice that helped her and husband Matthew McConaughey find each other.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Camila penned the advice her father gave her before she met her now husband of 12 years.
The actress-model began with a context into how her father was like as a person as she referred to him as a ‘ranch man’ and ‘a man of morals.’ “Where I learned my connection to the dirt, what grows, what gives, what don’t,” she wrote as she briefed about her childhood on account of Father’s Day.
Camila, 41, shared how her upbringing played a role in finding a husband she today calls ‘the best father’ for their three kids as she recalled her father’s words to not be impressed by materialistic things, instead by ‘substance.’
“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?’ ”
She recalled replying, “I am not sure, but I do like him a lot and I think the love could grow.”
She then went on to narrate their conversation as she penned, “Feeling the weight on my voice he quickly asked, ‘Can you see yourself having a child with him?’,” which she answered in no.
“Then you have your answer,” she quoted her father’s response at the time and mentioned another quote he had once iterated to her earlier in life that had her at surprise. “If you marry a man for only the material things he has then you are a high class prostitute to me,” she recalled.
“I know it sounds harsh but I thought about it throughout my life when and where I met many man that had a lot of material wealth and access but lacked true soul and morals.”
She also spoke of the time her dad met Matthew. “He had no idea who Matthew was. We have some funny stories, but Matthew is best to tell…”
She highlighted that this doesn’t mean her father micro-managed her love life as he always encouraged her to not carry the weight of her parent’s mistakes and accomplisments.
“Do what’s right for you…You now have your own family to build, do not carry any of the weight of your mother and I, our mistakes or accomplishments. You start fresh…Do not take the focus away from yours.”
She then reiterated her gratitude for her father for all the learnings.