Matthew McConaughey has bravely opened up about his experience of being blackmailed into having sex when he was just 15 years old.
McConaughey previously alluded to the experience in his 2020 memoir Greenlights. and now has opened up about more details from his past during a recent appearance on Amanda de Cadenet’s The Conversation: About the Men podcast.
The Texan-born actor told de Cadenet: "I’m not gonna be afraid of relationships because my first experience was blackmail. Uh-uh. That’s an aberration.
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"And I’m not gonna let it beat me … I’m not gonna let that beat my sense of trust in people and say, ’No, I can have a healthy relationship.’ Non-negotiable. No."
Elaborating further on the incident, McConaughey said he refused to let it impact his future sexual relationships as a teenager.
He said: “I was very clear, again, that was not right, that was not cool, that was not the way it is.
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“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.
“I don’t have a rocket science answer [about how to cope], 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."
In Greenlights, McConaughey also revealed that aged 18 he was molested by a man in the back of a van while he was knocked unconscious.
He said on the podcast he had no choice but to move past the traumatic incidents of his teenage years.
He explained: "Am I gonna carry that? I chose, non-negotiably, I’m not going to carry that, bring that baggage into the life I’m going to lead, and how I treat people and how I trust people, and how I look at circumstances and the risk I may take."
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The Oscar-winner has gone onto lead an incredibly successful life despite the ordeal, and has three children with wife Camila Alves. He admits to knowing the importance of consent at a very early age, after being given an important lesson in sex education from his father.
“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. You may even feel them hesitate, and then after you stop, they may go, “oh, no, come on”. Don’t. Wait till next time,'" Matthew said.
"He said, 'Trust you’ll have another day, if it is to be.'"
Topics: Matthew McConaughey, US News