Matthew McConaughey ate a mango fertilised by his son's placenta

Matthew McConaughey has revealed what he and his wife Camila Alves chose to do with their eldest child's placenta. Photo / Getty Images

Matthew McConaughey has opened up about eating a mango that was fertilised by his son's placenta.

Speaking to Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show, the actor said he and wife Camila Alves planted their son Levi's placenta with seeds for a mango tree after his birth in 2008.

"That mango tree bore it's first mango nine years later which we all as a family sat down and ate," McConaughey said. "(We) celebrated our eldest son like it was his birthday, going 'You helped fertilise this mango, sir.'"

So how did it taste?

"One of the best mangoes I've ever had in my life," the Oscar winner told Ellen.

McConaughey was inspired to bury his son's placenta after a trip to Australia.

In 2008 he told CNN's House Call With Dr Sanjay Gupta: "When I was in Australia, they had a placenta tree that was on the river … and all the placentas of all that tribe, all that clan, whatever Aboriginal tribe that was, all the placentas went under that one tree and it was this huge behemoth of just health and strength. This tree was just growing taller and stronger above the rest of Mother Nature around it. It was gorgeous."

McConaughey and Alves have three children together, Levi, 12, Vida, 10 and Livingston, 7.