Matt Damon is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. From his early work in “ Good Will Hunting” and “ The Talented Mr. Ripley” to his legacy as Jason Bourne, he’s proven his talent as an actor time and again and he certainly has the awards to show for it. With one Oscar from five nominations and two Golden Globe Awards under his belt, among many Emmy, BAFTA and SAG nominations, there’s no denying Damon’s incredible acting abilities.
But one side of the star that we don’t see that often is his personal life. Damon is happily married to his wife, Luciana Barroso AKA Lucy Damon, and together, the couple has four children. Quite the family man, Damon even has a rule with his wife and kids that he won’t spend more than two weeks away from them. Although they have broken this agreement on one occasion, it came with the blessing from his family.
What’s more, Damon has said that he “hit the jackpot” with his wife. Clearly enamored with Barroso, the actor didn’t hold back when he appeared on “The Ellen Show” in 2011. He spoke about his beloved wife, the incredible story of how they met and their gorgeous family.
It all started when Damon was on the set of his movie “Stuck On You,” which was filmed in Miami in the early 2000s. The actor explained that one night during the shoot he was convinced to go out for a drink with some of the guys and that night happened to change the course of his life.
How They Met
Matt Damon, Luciana Barroso (2005), (J. Vespa/WireImage via Getty Images)
“I’m so happy now; I’m so lucky. I hit the jackpot with my wife.”
He went on to explain how they first met:
“We were supposed to shoot in Hawaii, then the movie got moved to Miami. I’d never really hung out in Miami, then one night in the middle of the shoot a couple of the guys said they were going to get a beer somewhere and I said ‘I’m not really interested’ but they dragged me along and we ended up in a bar where my wife was a bartender and I literally saw her across a crowded room.”
But the story isn’t a simple one that just ends with him asking her out on a date. Instead, he wound up working for her that night! In a Vogue interview, Barroso explained:
“But he had started getting recognised and asked for pictures and autographs, and then it got kind of aggressive because people are drinking and stuff, and 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.'”
But Barroso, a single mother of a 4-year-old, didn’t have time to relax and get to know each other behind the bar — she had work to do, so she got her future husband involved. She revealed:
“So I put him to work with me! I said: ‘you know, if you’re going to be back here, you can’t just be standing there!’ He had trained as a bartender for a film years before, so he started making drinks. And he made me a ton of money in tips that night, because of course everyone wanted to go and see him.”
Damon’s Reaction To Barroso Being A Mom
Matt Damon (2016), (Dan MacMedan/WireImage via Getty Images)
The two hit it off right away but it was the fact that Barroso had a daughter that drew Damon in further. After he asked her to join him and his friends, she declined and told him she had a 4-year-old at home. She said in the same Vogue interview:
“He said: ‘I love that you’re a mum and that’s your priority’. Some guys might have been different, they might think it’s complicated, but for him it wasn’t. 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.”
Born in Salta, Argentina, Barroso was raised by her Italian grandparents. She had a daughter, Alexia, with her first husband but after they divorced, they moved to the United States. Damon and Barroso got married in 2005 and the actor adopted Alexia before he and Barroso added three more children to their family — daughters Isabella, Gia and Stella.
Barroso knows what it means to work hard if her first meeting with Damon didn’t already make that clear. On top of having worked as a bartender, she’s also been a flight attendant and interior decorator. She’s now a doting mother of four who also knows how to keep things fresh with her husband.
As Damon revealed in a 2013 GQ interview, one day Barroso decided they should both get tattoos. So Damon called up a tattoo artist friend — who happened to have done all of Heath Ledger’s tattoos — and they both got inked that same day with matching tattoos, which he called their “creative little blessing.” Meanwhile, Damon also got “Lucy” done on his upper arm, and he now has all four of his daughter’s names tattooed alongside their mother’s.
Their Family Pact
Luciana Damon, Matt Damon (2016), (Karwai Tang/WireImage via Getty Images)
Considering how close the family is, it’s no surprise to learn that they have some ground rules when it comes to spending time away from each other, and these mostly apply to Damon. Since being a world-famous movie star can mean going off on long shoots in far-off places, the actor has an agreement with his family that he won’t do a movie if he’ll be away from home for too long. Or alternatively, his family will join him on the shoot. He said during a radio appearance, as reported by the Daily Mail:
“Every decision to make a movie is really up for (sic) to the family. If it is going to be too disruptive, I just can’t do it. We try to not be apart for two weeks. We have this two week rule, but three weeks has been the longest we have ever been apart.”
Nevertheless, his family has made it to some of his film shoots, including a stay in China for six months back in 2015. Damon said in the same interview:
“Sometimes it is an adventure. Last year I went to China for six months and it was a big family trip and that was awesome.”
In an interview with Esquire, as reported by Parade, Damon also spoke about how his quiet family life has also managed to keep him out of the tabloids. He joked that he wasn’t interesting enough for the paparazzi. He said:
“They can try to stake me out, but they’re always going to get the same story – middle-aged married guy with four kids. So as long as that narrative doesn’t change too much, there’s no appetite for it … If I’m not jumping up and down on a bar, or lighting something on fire, or cheating on my wife, there’s not really any story to tell.”
