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From Maid to Model: Camila Alves Shares Cinderella Story

Camila Alves

It hasn’t been all red carpets and runways for Matthew McConaughey's gorgeous bride, Camila Alves.

Stopping by "The View" on Wednesday, the Brazilian model revealed that when she arrived in America at age 19, she couldn't speak much English and worked as a maid.

"I come from a simple background, so I couldn’t call my father and say, 'Come pay my bills,'" the 31-year-old said, "so I had to get out there and work."

The mother of three — Levi, 4, Vida, 3, and infant Livingston — credits her father for her work ethic.

"My father always told me, 'Before you become a queen you have to learn how to take care of your own things.’ So I knew how to do all of it, but I had never really done it on a daily basis. So I was cleaning houses and I started working restaurants," she said.

Her life cleaning homes didn’t last long – she became romantically involved with McConaughey in 2007 after meeting him at Hollywood club Hyde.

"We met at a bar, at Hyde of all places," she told Access Hollywood last summer of the former celeb haunt.

"We had two interactions at the bar, and I had no idea who he was! At the time he had a [beard] and was covered up in a big rasta hat," she said, noting her man was with cyclist Lance Armstrong.

"It was a time when he was always with Lance, you knew they were always together so then [I knew]," said Alves of the then-inseparable pair.

Alves is currently the face of Macy's in-house brand I.N.C. International Concepts and served as host for 2010's third season of the Bravo series "Shear Genius."

More recently, she's one-half of Hollywood's hottest couples and apparently a miracle worker in the gym. Alves has garnered much praise for getting back into model shape after having delivered on Dec. 28.

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