Matthew McConaughey Says His Dad Died While Having Sex

Matthew McConaughey has a new memoir, Greenlights, coming out on Oct. 20, and it includes a surprising revelation. The actor revealed that his father, James Donald McConaughey, died while in bed with his wife, McConaughey’s mother, Kay. The Dallas Buyers Club star mom said his dad after suffering a heart attack during sex.

“I got a call from my Mom. ‘Your dad died.’ My knees buckled,” McConaughey wrote, reports Page Six. “I couldn’t believe it. He was my dad. Nobody or nothing could kill him. Except for mom. He’d always told me and my brothers, ‘Boys, when I go, I’m gonna be makin’ love to your mother.’ And that’s what happened. He had a heart attack when he climaxed.” James died in 1992 and had a difficult relationship with Kay. The couple married three times, and McConaughey was born after their third wedding.

McConaughey described his parents’ relationship as “at times, violent” in an interview with PEOPLE. “As I say in the book, that is how they communicated. They were divorced twice, married three times, I mean, yeah, it was like the Pacific Ocean in a storm,” the actor said. McConaughey, 50, has three children with wife Camila, Levi, 12, Vilda, 10, and Livingston, 8.

During the coronavirus quarantine, his kids “doubled down on their hobbies, creative things and parts of themselves I don’t think they would have leaned into if they were back in school,” McConaughey told PEOPLE. He called being a father an “awe-inspiring” gift and noted his kids became “more self-reliant” during quarantine because they had to find their own way “out of their boredom.”

His children with Camila, 37, might also follow their dad into showbusiness. They developed interests in photography and storytelling over the summer, McConaughey said. “Our youngest one will come fill us in: ‘Oh, I’m on chapter two …’ Vida really likes to paint and draw and loves graphic novels,” McConaughey said. “For Levi it’s probably more music. Basically, he came out of the womb knowing a minor from major key on the piano. In the last six months, he really got into listening to composers, and he now can listen to a movie and tell you, ‘Oh, that’s Hans Zimmer,’ or ‘That’s John Williams,’ which is really cool.”

McConaughey was last seen on the big screen in The Gentleman last year. His other recent films include The Dark Tower, White Boy Rick, Serenity, and The Beach Bum. He won an Oscar in 2014 for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club. He voices Buster Moon again in the upcoming Sing sequel, which opens in December 2021.