Matthew McConaughey Defends ‘Funny’ Mom Testing His Wife Camila: ‘What Tickles Us May Bruise Others’

The actor said he and his family “cherish the value of a sense of humor”

Matthew McConaughey is shedding light on his family’s sense of humor.

In an episode of the Whine Down with Jana Kramer podcast released Sunday, the Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club actor elaborated on his comments about past interactions between his mother, Kay McConaughey, and wife, Camila Alves McConaughey.

“My family — and part of Camila and I as well — we cherish the value of a sense of humor and comedy,” Matthew, 53, told Kramer and her co-hosts.

In an August episode of Southern Living's Biscuits & Jam podcast, Camila, 41, revealed how her future mother-in-law used to joke around when the couple first got together in 2006.

“She was really testing me. I mean really testing me,” Camila recalled at the time. “She would call me by all of Matthew’s ex-girlfriend’s names, she would start speaking Spanish with me in a very broken way, kind of putting down a bit, all kinds of stuff."

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To “flip it on her,” Camila said she “let [Kay] have it.” She remembered Kay, 91, approving of the match after bearing the brunt of Camila’s “spicy Brazilian Latin side.”

“At the end, she just looks at me and she was like, ‘Okay, now you’re in.’ All she wanted was for me to fight back, and from that day on, that night on, we have the most amazing relationship," she concluded. "I have so much respect for her, she has so much respect for me. It can get tricky sometimes, but we always end with a good laugh.”

Related: Matthew McConaughey’s Wife Camila Alves McConaughey Says His ‘Getting High, Laid Back’ Image isn’t Real

Speaking with Kramer, Matthew acknowledged that some listeners objected to his "funny" mother’s past behavior. But, he clarified, “Camila wasn’t wounded about it.”

“What tickles us may bruise others,” the Magic Mike star added.

In fact, Matthew said, Kay was “looking out” for him by roasting Camila. “She tested my feelings and tested the woman I had the feelings for. Big picture, that’s pretty cool, actually.”

Matthew and Camila, who share sons Levi, 14, and Livingston, 10, and daughter Vida, 13, remain close with Kay — nicknamed “Ma Mac” by the family.

The actor also spoke about the clan’s jokey dynamic with ET Canada last month. “My family is big on rites of passage and initiation, and you don’t get into the McConaughey family easily,” Matthew said.

Related: Matthew and Camila Alves McConaughey's 3 Kids Growing Up Over the Years: Photos

“We test you,” he added. “My family, we humbly wait, we make you cry, and then we pick you up and make your favorite drink, ‘You’re welcome back.’ So there are initiations, rites of passage that my family’s always enjoyed.”

In July, Matthew and Camila's just keep livin Foundation announced the launch of its Greenlights Grant Initiative, seeking to help "school districts nationwide access billions of dollars of federal school safety funding" included in pieces of legislation like the 2022 federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The initiative was created in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.

Matthew also released a hit picture book, Just Because, this year. "It came to me at 2:30 a.m. as a ditty in a dream," he told PEOPLE of the book's inspiration. "It was a song in my mind, and I got up and wrote it down."

"I believe this book will resonate with children of all ages 'just because' it speaks to the kid in all of us,” he said. 

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