Matthew McConaughey with Australian aunt Stephanie (L), wife Camilla, cousin Karla Rothpletz-Tatt (far right) and her daughter.

He is the man of the moment and, it appears, almost one of our own.

Academy award winning actor Matthew McConaughey spent extended periods of time in Australia as a teenager and making movies, and has family here too.

Appearing on channel Nine’s Today, his Australian aunt Stephanie Rothpletz and cousins Karla and Peta, explained why they have stayed silent about their celebrity connection until now.

McConaughey’s Australian family on Today.

“Matthew is basically is a very private person and we wanted to respect his privacy,” Sydney-based Stephanie said. “We don’t want to blast out who we are, as proud as we are of him.”

Offering insight into the 44-year-old actor’s private life, she said that despite his success he was unaffected by Hollywood and that family remains his focus.

“He has three gorgeous children, whom he adores, and when you get him together with his mother and his two other brothers, mayhem reigns, but that’s his special time,” she said.

McConaughey with cousin Peta Rothpletz.

McConaughey, who won an Oscar for best actor in Dallas Buyers Club, made special reference to his family during an emotional acceptance speech.

“To my wife Camila and my kids, the courage and significance you give me every day I go out the door is unparalleled,” he said. “You are the four people in my life I want to make the most proud of me.”

As far as his big win is concerned, cousin Peta said it wasn’t his aspiration while growing up.

McConaughey with host father Ray Crocker. As seen on Today.

“He probably never imagined [he would win an Oscar] because he wasn’t into acting,” she explained. “He was going to do law, and then an opportunity arose for him to get into acting and look where he’s gone.”

A long way indeed.

At the age of 18 McConaughey came to Australia for nearly a year on a Rotary exchange and ended up working 11 different jobs, including on a pea farm.

“We’d come in for smoko and put the cricket on,” McConaughey recently told GQ about that time.

He also had an unsuccessful stint working at a local ANZ bank, where he accidentally set off the alarm.

“That was embarrassing,” he recalled, noting that his other jobs included assistant golf-pro and carpenter.

“I always coin that year as one of the most important in my life,” he said.

“I had no job, no girl, no car, I didn’t have dad there or my brothers, and none of my friends either. So I was forced to spend time on my own.

“I did more reading and writing than I had done in the 18 years prior. I was forced to check in with myself and that was a big rite of passage to manhood for me.”

He might not have had the money or the fame, but even back then he had the star quality.

“The girls were always chasing him, even when he was with us,” his host father, Ray Crocker, said.

Everything and nothing has changed since then, but he’s still the same said his cousin Karla.

“You wouldn’t know he’s a Hollywood star, he’s just family.”