Matt Damon surprised fans by sharing a lengthy personal detail about his wife, Luciana Barroso, and his lifelong best friend Ben Affleck, revealing that when they first met, Barroso initially found Affleck more attractive.
The candid confession came during Damon’s appearance on Howard Stern Show on Monday, January 12 and quickly became a sensational moment in the interview.
“This is absolutely true,” Damon, 55, said when Stern asked if Affleck, 53, was around the night he met his future wife.
Damon explained that the truth came out months into their relationship after he met Barroso’s best friend from high school.
The two women had gone to see Good Will Hunting together years earlier, and their opinions about the film’s stars were very different.
Damon recalled, “After we’d been together for a while, probably a few months, she admitted it — I think I met her best friend from high school, and it turned out that the two of them went and saw Good Will Hunting together and her best friend thought I was the cutie and she thought Ben was the cutie.”
Damon said he jokingly confronted his wife about it at the time, telling Stern, “So she admitted to me… I’m like, ‘Did you grab the wrong one?!’ She told me that 23 years ago.”
When Stern asked if they keep hearing things like this over time, Damon and Affleck pointed out that their bond has only gotten stronger, both personally and professionally.
Barroso, now 49, currently works closely with both men and serves as a producer on The Rip and Affleck’s upcoming directorial project Animal.
Affleck joked that he never sensed any romantic tension, saying that Barroso is “a great producer and a really good friend”, adding that whatever attraction there was disappeared when she met him in real life.
“Eventually she met him and all that went away,” Damon replied, drawing laughter from the studio.
The conversation turned playful when Stern suggested it would be “devastating” if Barroso ever left Damon for Affleck.
Damon agreed without hesitation, saying, “If my two favorite people just left my life? Yeah, that would be a shame.”
Damon and Affleck rose to fame together Good Will Huntingwhich won them Oscars, and Damon later met Barroso in Miami during filming Stuck on you.
The couple married in 2005 and share four daughters, Alexia, Isabella, Gia and Stella.
Affleck, who has witnessed their relationship over the years, praised their marriage, calling it “a really beautiful marriage and friendship.”
Damon also revealed that he barely remembers who was with him the night he met Barroso because he was so preoccupied with her.
“I couldn’t remember who I was with because all I remembered was her,” he said, a comment that Affleck jokingly qualified by saying that Damon was “hammered” but smart enough to frame it romantically.
More than two decades later, Damon’s story landed as a reminder of the deep friendship and humor that still defines his bond with both his wife and his best friend.
