Matt Damon’s wife, Luciana Barroso, candidly admitted that before marrying Damon, she had a crush on his longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck. During a January 12 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Damon shared this surprising detail while promoting their Netflix project, The Rip.
Before Barroso and Damon became a couple, she and her high school friend went to see Good Will Hunting, the film starring both Damon and Affleck. Barroso later confessed to Damon that she found Affleck more attractive than him at the time.
Behind the Story: The Crush and Their Enduring Friendship
Damon recounted,
“After we’d been together for probably a few months, I think I met her best friend from high school and it came out that the two of them went and saw Good Will Hunting together and her best friend thought I was the cute one and [Luciana] thought Ben was the cute one.”
He added,
“So she admitted to me. I’m like, ‘You got the wrong one?!’ She told me that 23 years ago.”
Clearly amused by the revelation, Damon agreed with Stern’s remark that it was something he still remembered, saying,
“Well, I remember it now, Howard.”
Ben Affleck chipped in during the conversation, noting that he has worked with Barroso multiple times and respects her professionalism.
“She’s a great producer and a really good friend,”
Affleck said.
“And I never got that vibe from her. So I think something I did in real life rubbed it off.”
Damon joked in response,
“Finally she met him and all that went away.”
When Stern teased that it would be distressing if Barroso left Damon for Affleck, Damon resonated with the idea.
“If my two favorite people just exited my life?”
he asked. “Yeah, that would suck.”
A Lifelong Bond Between Damon and Affleck
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have shared a friendship spanning nearly their entire lives. Raised just blocks apart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the pair met when Damon was eight and Affleck was ten. Their shared ambition to succeed in Hollywood led them to write and star in Good Will Hunting in 1997, which earned them an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Damon’s relationship with Barroso began five years after their Oscar win, when they met in Miami during the filming of Stuck on You in 2002. The couple married within two years and have since raised three daughters together: Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15. Barroso also has a daughter, Alexia, 25, from a previous relationship, whom Damon has embraced as his stepdaughter.
The Strength of Damon and Barroso’s Partnership
Affleck praised the enduring relationship between Damon and Barroso during the interview, sharing that he has witnessed many beautiful moments in their two-decade partnership.
“It’s a really gorgeous marriage and friendship and two people who when they’re apart and independent of one another are one another’s partner,”
he remarked. Affleck added,
“I didn’t see the first day, but I have a feeling it’s improved.”
