Who Is Matt Damon's Wife? All About Luciana Barroso

Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso have been married since 2005 and share four kids

Matt Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, have been married for nearly two decades and have built a family together.

The pair met in 2003 at the bar Barroso was working at and instantly connected. They tied the knot two years later and went on to welcome three daughters: Isabella, Gia and Stella. Damon also became a stepdad to Barroso's daughter Alexia.

Although Damon is an A-list movie star, the couple are very private. The mom of four does not have social media and is rarely featured in interviews. She does, however, step out for the occasional red carpet to support her husband's projects and career.

So, what is there to know about the Good Will Hunting star's wife? Keep reading to learn more about Luciana Barroso and her relationship with Matt Damon.

She's from Argentina

While not much is known about Barroso's life before she met Damon, PEOPLE previously reported that she was born in Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish.

She met Damon while bartending

The couple's first meeting was something out of a rom-com. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Damon revealed that they met in Miami in 2003 while he was shooting the film Stuck on You. "I literally saw her across a crowded room, literally," he recalled. "Eight years and four kids later, that's my life. I don't know how else our paths would've crossed if that didn't happen."

Barroso remembers things a little bit differently. She discussed their first encounter during a rare interview with Vogue Australia in 2018. At the time, Barroso was working as a bartender, and Damon and his film crew came in for a drink. "Matt's story is that he saw me across the room and there was a light on me. And I'm like, 'Yeah, it was a nightclub — there were lights everywhere!' " she said.

Damon then came behind the bar to get a break from the crowd. "He had started getting recognized and asked for pictures and autographs, and then it got kind of aggressive because people are drinking and stuff," she explained. "So he came and hid behind the 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.' "

Barroso decided to put the actor to work, though. She told him, "'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," she continued. "So it turned into a really fun night and then 15 years later here we are!"

On April 5, 2023, Damon celebrated 20 years since meeting his wife during an appearance on The Tonight Show. After host Jimmy Fallon mentioned seeing Barroso backstage, Damon confirmed, "Ya, this is the day we met 20 years ago."

She's a mom of four

When Damon and Barroso met, she was a single mom raising her daughter, Alexia, on her own. Since getting together, the couple have welcomed three other daughters: Isabella, Gia and Stella.

Barroso shared with Vogue Australia that one of the traits Damon admired about her when they first met was that she was a mom. "We definitely had a connection right away, it was so easy to talk to each other, we were very comfortable [with each other], and by the end of the night, he invited me to go out with his friends," she recalled. "But I was like, 'I can't, I have a four-year-old daughter, I'm not going anywhere' … and that was one of the things he loved, that I had a daughter."

She continued, "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."

She and Damon have been married since 2005

Damon and Barroso tied the knot in December 2005 after two years of dating. The marriage was Damon's first and Barroso's second, as she had previously been married to Alexia's biological father.

Ahead of the couple's 10th anniversary, Damon reflected on marriage and shared the secret to their enduring relationship.

"I'm lucky I found my wife," the actor told Entertainment Tonight. "I guess maybe, if there's any secret … it's to feel lucky." He continued, "I think marriage is insane. It's a crazy idea but I love being married to my wife. So I wouldn't tell anybody else anything about their relationship."

She's friends with Chris Hemsworth's wife

Barroso might stay out of the spotlight, but she still has some famous friends. Most notably, Barroso and Damon are close with Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Pataky.

As Pataky told PEOPLE, the two couples met through mutual friends and now go on vacations together with their kids. "Chris has been a big fan of Matt Damon, me too, and then when I met his wife I'm even more a fan of his wife," she said. "They are such amazing people. We have three kids, they have four kids, so we ended up making the same plans because everything we do, we do with the kids, so it's easier to do things with people that understand you. And they're very adventurous too, so we were just on holiday in Costa Rica."

Pataky and Barroso have become particularly close over the years, with Pataky citing the fact that they both speak Spanish as one of the reasons. "So for me it's a relief, yes, somebody I can speak Spanish with! We've become very good friends," the Spanish actress and model told PEOPLE.

The two even have matching tattoos that they got after spending Christmas together one year. "We felt like we had to have something to remind us of those great moments we stayed together, and we decided to get a little tattoo [of three dots on their pinkies] all together and we say 'We'll have to do one every year,' " Pataky explained.

In June 2023, Barroso and Damon vacationed with Hemsworth, Pataky and Liam Hemsworth on the Greek Island of Mykonos. The group were seen smoking cigars and dancing together.

Her and Damon's wedding rings have a very special meaning

During a 2017 interview with Parade, Damon revealed that his and Barrasso's wedding rings were a tribute to his grandparents. He explained that his grandmother passed her ring down to his mother, which was made with "tiny, tiny little diamonds."

"They weren't quality diamonds; it was what [Damon's grandfather] could afford," the actor said. "But the marriage lasted. They were married for over 60 years. It wasn't about the ring; it was about the marriage. So when I told my mother that I was marrying Lucy, she gave me that ring and there were these six little diamonds. We took three of them and we put them on the inside of my band, and then we took three and we put them on the inside of her band. So they're not visible, but we're hopefully carrying the best part of that union with us."

She and Damon have matching tattoos

In 2013, Barroso talked Damon into spontaneously getting a tattoo: the word "Lucy" (Barroso's nickname) on his upper right arm.

"She just announced it," he recalled during a 2021 interview with GQ. "We were in our apartment in Manhattan, and she was like, 'We're getting tattoos.' I was like, 'Okay.' "

Damon explained that he wanted his ink done by tattoo artist Scott Campbell, a friend of his who also did all of Heath Ledger's tattoos. "I told him if I ever got a tattoo, he was my first phone call," he explained of Campbell.

Not only did Damon get "Lucy" tattooed on his arm, but he also got a tattoo that Ledger had designed himself prior to his 2008 death. Pointing out the abstract design on his right arm, Damon explained, "Heath was an incredibly restless, creative person. He was really sensitive. This stuff just flowed out of him. He was really special." Barroso ended up getting the same tattoo on her foot.

She is very private

Barroso might be married to one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but she shies away from the spotlight herself. She rarely speaks publicly about her relationship and does not have any social media.

For his part, Damon likes being married to someone who is not in the industry. In an interview with Esquire, Damon said, "I got lucky. I fell in love with a civilian. Not an actress and not a famous actress at that. Because then the attention doesn't double — it grows exponentially."

The two seem to do their best to maintain a sense of normalcy. In the same interview, Damon said, "[Paparazzi] can try to stake me out, but they're always going to get the same story: middle-aged married guy with four kids."

She and Damon have a two-week rule

The couple have been married for nearly two decades and have said that the key to their long-lasting love is spending lots of time together. In fact, Damon told YourTango during a 2014 interview that even with his demanding work schedule, he and Barroso never spend more than two weeks apart.

"We have a two week rule. I'm not away for more than two weeks," Damon said. "I think you need to be with the person you love as much as possible. My wife is my soul mate. I don't like being apart from her."

She wants her daughters to be confident

As a mom of four daughters, Barroso knows how important it is to teach self-acceptance and confidence. In her interview with Vogue Australia, she shared that she tries "really hard to constantly talk about self-esteem and compassion, and hope that will carry on."

"We're not always going to be able to be there when they have to make critical decisions in their life, so I just hope that they know how to respect themselves and respect others and to not hold back and do what they want to do, but always have in mind the effect on another human being," she continued. "I want them to feel like they can do anything and everything they want to do, to just have to go for it and try and don't let anything stand in their way, but not at the cost of somebody else."

She kept Damon from falling into a deep depression

During an interview with Jake's Takes in July 2023, Damon recalled working on a film that he knew wasn't a blockbuster hit. Realizing that he'd uprooted his family for a project that didn't meet his standards, he became depressed.

"Sometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know, perhaps, might not be what you had hoped it would be, and you're still making it," he said. "I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about it. [Luciana] just said, 'We're here now.' "

Damon went on to credit his wife for making him a professional actor.

"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," he explained. "If you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you're a pro. And she really helped me with that."

She negotiated with Damon about taking a break from acting

During a July 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Damon spoke about how Barroso wanted Damon to take time off from work after a busy few years. The actor promised his wife he'd take a break unless Christopher Nolan offered him a role.

"This is going to sound made up, but it's actually true," the Oppenheimer star said. "I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off.”

He added that he made the promise without even knowing if Nolan had anything in the works.

“This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you,” the actor said. “He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household."

She and Damon have attended numerous high-profile events together

Barroso is often Damon's plus-one to Hollywood's star-studded soirees, award shows and charity events.

In March 2023, she and three of their four daughters accompanied Damon to the Los Angeles premiere of his film AIR. Photos captured the family sharing a laugh on the red carpet. Later that same year, Damon and Barroso attended the second annual Albies in support of George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney.

Barroso and Damon stepped out again in March 2024 for Vanity Fair's Oscars afterparty.

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