Matt Damon has revealed that his wife of 20 years, Luciana Barroso, admitted to having a crush on his best friend before they ever met.
A few months into their relationship, Barroso told her now-husband that she initially thought Ben Affleck, who co-starred with Damon in their 1997 film Good Will Hunting, was the cuter of the pair.
“I met her best friend from high school, and it came out that the two of them went and saw Good Will Hunting together,” Damon, 55, said Monday on the Howard Stern Show. “Her best friend thought I was the cute one. And she thought Ben was the cute one.”
He continued, “So she admitted to me. I’m like, ‘You got the wrong one?!’ She told me that 23 years ago.”
Affleck then pointed out that Barroso worked as a producer on the duo’s new movieThe Rip, saying, “She’s a great producer and a really good friend. And yeah, I never got that vibe from her.”
The Gone Girl actor, 53, joked as Stern and Damon laughed: “So I think something I did in real life rubbed it off.”
Stern said it would be “devastating” if Barroso left Damon to be with Affleck, to which Damon replied: “If my two favorite people just exited my life? Yeah, that would suck.”
Barroso and Damon met in 2003 while the actor was filming his movie Stuck on You in Miami, where Barroso was bartending at the time. The couple got married in 2005 and have four children together: 26-year-old Alexia, Barroso’s daughter from a previous relationship, as well as Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15.
Affleck told Stern about his best friend’s relationship: “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 then joked that he should ask for Barroso’s high school best friend’s phone number, but Damon broke the news that she is now married. Affleck playfully responded, “Story of my life.”
Affleck has three of his own children with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who he was married to from 2005 to 2018. He tied the knot with Jennifer Lopez in 2022, but the former on-and-off couple finalized their divorce in 2024.
Damon and Affleck have shared everything from bank accounts to Academy Awards throughout their decades-long friendship. They earned their first Oscars for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting, which also earned late actor Robin Williams his win for best supporting actor.
