Matthew McConaughey has bravely spoken out about the time he was blackmailed into having sex when he was a teenager.
During an episode of Amanda de Cadenet’s The Conversation: About the Men podcast, the 52-year-old actor opened up about the time he was blackmailed into having sex at the age of 15 and revealed another traumatic incident he experienced at 18.
As well as reflecting on his difficult teenage years, McConaughey also spoke about the conversations he had with his dad on the topic of sexual intimacy and consent.
The Wedding Planner actor explained that his father sat him down for a talk on "the birds and the bees," and the importance of having respect for future partners.
The Dallas Buyers Club actor told the podcast host about the incident, saying: "I’m not gonna be afraid of relationships because my first experience was blackmail. Uh-uh. That’s an aberration."
"Am I denying that it happened? No. I’m not denying that it happened. It happened," he said, explaining that he "chose" not to "bring that baggage" into his life.
Elaborating further on the incident, McConaughey said he refused to let the traumatic moment affect his future sexual relationships as a teenager, saying: "I was very clear, again, that was not right, that was not cool, that was not the way it is."
"After that, I got to have some healthy sexual relations and have girls that I liked and liked me, and we slowly got intimate and it was beautiful and clumsy, and all those things, but it wasn’t ugly like that was," he added.
While speaking to de Cadenet, the Interstellar star also recalled how his late father, James McConaughey, taught him about the importance of consent.
"He said, 'Son, as a male in the situation,' - speaking to me about a heterosexual relationship - 'if you ever feel the girl, the female, hesitate, stop,'" McConaughey recalled.
"'You may even feel them hesitate, and then after you stop, they may go, 'oh, no, come on'. Don’t. Wait till next time,'" the actor said, adding, "'Trust you’ll have another day if it is to be.'"
The True Detective actor said that his dad's advice on the importance of sexual intimacy helped him overcome the blackmail experience - something he also reflected on in his memoir Greenlights which was published in 2020.
McConaughey wrote that he was sexually assaulted in a van three years after the blackmail incident and revealed that he didn’t "connect" the two incidents. He insisted that he didn’t have any option other than to get past it.
When asked how he was able to move past his trauma, the actor said: "I don’t have a rocket science answer, it wasn’t an option. I love life too much and believe in life, believe in people. I still go trust-first. I have my spider senses and my sirens."
The academy award-winning actor refused to let his trauma define his relationships with others and has gone on to lead a successful life.
He has three children - Levi Alves McConaughey, 14, Vida Alves McConaughey, 12, and Livingston Alves McConaughey, nine - with his wife Camila Alves.