In August, Camila Alves made headlines when she revealed her now-mother-in-law Mary McCabe put her through the ringer when she began dating Mary’s son Matthew McConaughey.

Now, “Mama Mac” is explaining why.

As reported, the Brazilian model and mom to the Oscar-winning actor’s kids, Levi, Vida and Livingston, told the Southern Living’s Biscuits & Jam podcast, “She would call me by all of Matthew’s ex-girlfriends’ names, she would start speaking Spanish with me in a very broken way, kind of putting [me] down a bit. I mean, all kinds of stuff.”

She later said she realized she was being tested, and they now have “the most amazing relationship.”

To ET Canada, Mary McCabe admitted she was trying to rattle Alves’ cage at first.

“My family is big on rites of passage and initiation, and you don’t get into the McConaughey family easily,” she explains. “We test you. Oh, my family, we humbly wait, we make you cry, and then we pick you up and make your favorite drink,” she continued.

“So there are initiations, rites of passage that my family’s always enjoyed,” McConaughey’s mom said.

For his part, actor and author McConaughey noted the moment that Alves broke through to his mom. “Camila goes, ‘I’m not asking your permission anymore.’ And basically, my mom was like, ‘There we go. That’s right.'”

That said, Matthew explained he’s not sure if he and Camila will carry on that thorny family tradition when their kids start dating. Their son Levi is 15, daughter Vida is 13 and their youngest, son Livingston, is 10.

“We’ll see,” he offers. “Talk to me in about three years, and I’ll have a better answer…”

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