Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso prefer to keep their marriage off the Hollywood radar as much as possible — but a resurfaced interview is giving fans all the feels about their lasting love.
In a rare glimpse at their relationship, Barroso gave an interview to Vogue Australia in May 2018. She shared the insight into her romance with Damon and their sweet meet-cute story, which began at a Miami hotspot where she was bartending.
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Damon, who was shooting a movie in Florida, visited the nightclub when he spotted his future wife from “across the room.” Unfortunately, his romantic approach was blocked by fans who “recognized [him] and asked for pictures and autographs.” When it got “kind of aggressive,” the Oscar winner made a move that forever changed their lives.
Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 10, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)
“…So, he came and hid behind my bar … [wanting to] just hang out back there and have a drink. He says, ‘Oh I saw you and I really wanted to talk to you,’” recalled Barroso. She put him right to work as a bartender and promptly “made me a ton of money in tips that night, because of course everyone wanted to go and see him.”
Barroso shared that they “had a connection right away,” but she declined his invitation to go out with his friends because she was a single mom to a four-year-old daughter at the time. The Bourne Identity star respected her reasoning, and it might be what sealed the deal to their future together.
“Some guys might have been different; they might think it’s complicated, but for him it wasn’t,” she revealed. “When you meet somebody that you have a connection with, that’s just the person that you have a connection with, all the other stuff— the movie-star part—wasn’t really a factor. It was just Matt, to me he’s just Matt.”
After almost 20 years of marriage, Damon has equally lovely things to say about his wife. In a July 2023 interview with Jake’s Takes, he gushed about Barroso’s advice that got him out of a deep “depression” after a failed project.
“Halfway through production and you’ve still got months to go, and you’ve taken your family somewhere, and you’ve inconvenienced them,” Damon said of the unnamed film. “And I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about, like, What have I done?”
Damon continued, “She just said, ‘We’re here now.’ I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor. And what being a professional actor means is you go, and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort. If you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro, and she really helped me with that.”
The couple dated for two years before marrying in December 2005. They share four daughters: Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 14, as well as Alexia, 25, from Barroso’s first marriage.
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples with the best stories behind how they met.
Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade at arrivals for Step Up’s 13th Annual Inspiration Awards, The Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA May 20, 2016.
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