Matthew McConaughey and Wife Camila Mark 12 Years Married: How the Couple Supports Each Other

The pair, who first met in 2006, celebrate their 12-year wedding anniversary on June 9

Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves McConaughey’s love continues on.

Since finding love at first sight in 2006, the actor, 54, and his wife Camila, 41, have welcomed three children, adopted two dogs, started a foundation, become bestselling authors together and launched a tequila brand. On June 9, they celebrate 12 years of marriage.

Through both joint efforts and solo endeavors, they have stood by each other’s side every step of the way.

To mark the couple’s wedding anniversary, here’s a look back at how the pair has supported and shown each other love throughout their love story.

Related: Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves' Relationship Timeline

Before meeting his now-wife, a model, entrepreneur and philanthropist, McConaughey was not sure he would ever find "the one,” he told PEOPLE in 2020. And he had tried, maybe even “too hard,” he noted at the time.

So he stopped searching. "That’s when she showed up,” the actor recalled. “She moved right to left in front of my eyes across that club. It was as if she was floating. And I did not say, ‘Who is that?’ I said, ‘What is that?’ And then introduced myself."

Reflecting on that fateful moment years earlier, he said, “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.”

Three nights later, they went on their first official date, and from that moment on the pair has been inseparable. "Since that evening I have not wanted to spend time with any other woman,” McConaughey previously told PEOPLE — and “definitely have not wanted to sleep with anyone else.”

“I’ve not wanted to have children with anyone else other than her," he added. "We have a love that we never question.”

Elaborating on what he loves most about Camila, the Interstellar star told PEOPLE, “The self-respect she had, the way I understood her and her relationship with family, the way she respected me but never took anything for granted, not putting on any airs whatsoever.”

McConaughey and Camila have three kids — Levi, 15, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11 — plus a shared dedication to family and raising kind human beings.

Per the actor, the parents teach the trio that "our real merit comes from how we’re trying to be as people, how we are as parents, how we love you, how we love each other." And he and Camila know they aren’t “perfect at it," he added, "but we try to do our best.”

Related: Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves Bring Sexy 'Mom and Dad' Energy for 2024 Oscars Date Night

Though the family is relatively private, the kids do join Camila to support McConaughey publicly on occasion. In April, the entire family joined McConaughey at an annual gala for the couple’s children's fundraising nonprofit, the Mack, Jack & McConaughey foundation.

Camila’s earliest public show of support for her actor beau came shortly after the couple welcomed son Levi in 2008, when she attended the Los Angeles premiere of McConaughey’s film Fool's Gold — despite being a bit “nervous,” she later revealed.

Reminiscing about the evening in an Instagram post years later, the philanthropist wrote, "I was so nervous, we had already been dating for a while and I had been to movie premieres with him but always sneaking in thru the back to keep our privacy.”

Despite a windy wardrobe mishap, she stuck it out, noting, "I laugh the whole way because if you can't fix it may as well laugh right!"

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Memorably, Camila also supported her actor husband as he embarked on a 47-lb. weight loss for his role in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, which ultimately earned him an Oscar win.

After McConaughey debuted the dramatic transformation, Camila said she was “very supportive.” “I'm usually the one right there saying, 'You can't eat this, you can't eat that,' but he's very disciplined,” she said at the time. “He's really great at it."

Thanking both Camila and their children in his heartwarming Oscar acceptance speech, the star said, "To my wife Camila and my kids Levi, Vida and Mr. Stone: the courage and significance you give me every day when I go out the door is unparalleled. You are the four people in my life I want to make the most proud of me."

He may not have taken the role without Camila’s encouragement to move on from rom-coms, he revealed in 2016. "A good woman gives a man courage and confidence,” he told Esquire at the time. “The courage to have the confidence to go and do it, to not be worried as much or consider as much what the rest of the world thinks."

The Oscar winner has also reciprocated Camila’s support throughout the years, from celebrating her handbag collection’s launch in 2008 to helping her get her frozen organic baby food line, Yummy Spoonfuls, off the ground in 2016.

"I couldn't have done it if I didn't have his support because I had to work very long hours, seven days a week," she said of McConaughey at the time. "If my family wasn't there to be able to hold the ball when I wasn't there and be able to really support me, then I couldn't have done it."

Related: Camila and Matthew McConaughey's Morning Routine Is Always the Same Even If They're 'in a Disagreement'

The How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days star also shows his love for Camila on social media — he congratulated the Brazil native on becoming a U.S. citizen on Facebook in 2015 — and makes business decisions based on her passions.

In 2019, McConaughey became a part owner of Major League Soccer team Austin FC, a venture influenced by his wife's passion for the sport, he later revealed.

"I played a little bit of soccer as a youngster but soccer was not my game," he told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. "But then I marry this woman and she is from Brazil. If you are going to marry a Brazilian woman, soccer is not something you talk about, soccer is something in your blood."

Related: Matthew and Camila McConaughey Commiserate Over 'Summer Parenting' in New Video: 'School's Out, Margaritas in'

The couple has also blended their passions throughout the years, through their Just Keep Livin' Foundation and, more recently, their tequila brand Pantalones Organic Tequila.

The couple founded Just Keep Livin' in 2008 with the mission to help low-income high school students lead more active lives and make healthy choices. In 2021, McConaughey was honored as philanthropist of the year by The Hollywood Reporter after the foundation raised $7.7 million for victims of Texas's winter storm Uri.

The couple announced Pantalones, their latest joint endeavor, in late 2023, dubbing it “the best thing we’ve made with our pants on.”

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