Matt Damon surprised fans by sharing a long-kept personal detail about his wife, Luciana Barroso, and his longtime best friend, Ben Affleck, revealing that when they met, Barroso initially found Affleck more attractive.
The candid confession came during Damon’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Monday, January 12 and quickly became a highlight of the interview.
“This is f—ing true,” Damon, 55, said when Stern asked if Affleck, 53, was present the night he met his future wife.
Damon explained that the truth came out months into their relationship, after meeting Barroso’s best friend from high school.
The two women had gone to see Goodwill Hunt together years earlier, and their opinions of the film’s stars were very different.
Damon recalled: “After we had been together for a while, probably a few months, she admitted that… I think I met her best friend from high school and it turned out that they both went and saw Goodwill Hunt together and her best friend thought I was the cute one and she thought Ben was the cute one.”
Damon said he jokingly confronted his wife about it at the time, telling Stern, “Then she admitted to me… I said, ‘You were wrong?!’ “She told me that 23 years ago.”
When Stern asked if hearing something like that lasts over time, Damon and Affleck noted 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 tear and Affleck’s next directorial project animals.
Affleck joked that he never felt any romantic tension and called Barroso “a great producer and a very good friend,” adding that any attraction that existed clearly faded once he met him in real life.
“She finally met him and all that went away,” Damon responded, prompting laughter in the studio.
The conversation turned funny 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 walked out of my life? Yeah, that would suck.”
Damon and Affleck rose to fame together Goodwill Huntwhich won them the Oscar, and Damon later met Barroso in Miami while filming stuck to 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 truly wonderful marriage and friendship.”
Damon also revealed that he barely remembers who was with him the night he met Barroso because she was so enthralled.
“I couldn’t remember who I was with because all I remembered was her,” he said, a comment Affleck jokingly qualified by saying Damon was “beaten up” but smart enough to phrase it romantically.
More than two decades later, Damon’s story came as a reminder of the deep friendship and humor that still defines his bond with both his wife and best friend.
