Meet Luciana Barroso, the Bartender Who Stole 'Air' Star Matt Damon's Heart

He was hiding behind her bar. She put him to work. They got married.

At one point in his past, Matt Damon might have thought that marriage wasn't in the cards for him. That all changed though, when The Talented Mr. Ripley star wound up meeting his eventual wife: Luciana Barroso.

“I remember thinking, in my early 30s, that I wouldn’t [get married], you know?” the Stillwater actor confessed to The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “I didn’t think it was going to happen for me. My brother found his soulmate very young; he’d just turned 26 when they were married. He’d been married for 10 years by the time I even met my wife, and I looked at this really happy, wonderful marriage and kind of went, ‘I guess that’s not going to happen for me.’ And then it did.”

Here is everything you need to know about Matt Damon's wife...

Who is Matt Damon's wife?

The Good Will Hunting star is married to Luciana "Lucy" Barroso. The now-46-year-old, who was born in Argentina, was a single mother to daughter Alexia when she first met the now-52-year-old actor.

How and when did Matt Damon meet his wife Luciana?

Barroso met the Golden Globe winner in 2003 while she was working as a bartender in Miami. Damon was in town filming the comedy Stuck on You when he and the crew ended up in her bar one night.

"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 recalled in a 2018 interview with Vogue Australia. “But he had started getting recognized 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.'"

She added, “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. So it turned into a really fun night and then 15 years later here we are!”

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What made Matt Damon fall in love with his wife?

The couple had a connection right off the bat, Barroso revealed to Vogue Australia. Damon particularly loved that being a mom was her priority. “We definitely had a connection right away. It was so easy to talk to each other [and] we were very comfortable [with each other], and by the end of the night he invited me to go out with his friends. But I was like, ‘I can’t, I have a 4-year-old daughter, I’m not going anywhere'… and that was one of the things he loved, that I had a daughter. He said, ‘I love that you’re a mum and that’s your priority,'" she said.

"Some guys might have been different, they might think it’s complicated, but for him it wasn’t," Barroso continued. "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.”

When did Matt Damon and his wife Luciana get engaged?

A rep for Damon confirmed the couple's engagement to PEOPLE in September 2005.

When did Matt Damon and his wife Luciana get married?

A few months after it was reported that they were engaged, the pair got married that December in a private ceremony in New York City. The bride's daughter Alexia was present for the ceremony, TODAY reported at the time.

The actor's wedding ring means a great deal to Damon. "My grandmother gave my mother her ring in her will. My grandfather didn’t have a lot of money; they were kind of children of the Depression, and the ring he gave her had these tiny, tiny little diamonds in them. They weren’t quality diamonds; it was what he could afford. But the marriage lasted," he shared with Parade in 2017. "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."

Eight years after they first tied the knot, the couple renewed their vows in 2013 on the island of St. Lucia with roughly 50 guests, including Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, in attendance, according to Us Weekly. "They've wanted to do it for a long time," a friend told the outlet about the vow renewal. "They had a tiny ceremony the first time, and wanted to celebrate with family and friends."

How many kids do Matt Damon and his wife Luciana have?

The Ocean's Eleven star was a stepdad to Barroso's daughter Alexia before becoming a biological father. He and his wife welcomed their first child together, Isabella, in 2006, followed by Gia in 2008 and Stella in 2010.

“I jumped into the deep end with Lucy. I mean, Alexia was already 4. I was an extra dad," Damon told Parade in 2011. "The only way I can describe it—it sounds stupid, but —at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full; it’s just full all the time.”

Damon, who has his daughters' names tattooed on his right upper arm, has spoken about what he has learned as a girl dad. "I never expected to be surrounded by girls, but it’s great. ...You never know which way life’s going to take you," he told TODAY.com in 2012. "I’m learning so much, not the least of which is how much smarter girls are. I operated under the assumption that us guys had a chance, but I realized when I was completely wrapped around my 2-year-old’s finger, and she knew it. If they can do that to us at 2 years old, when they’re fully grown we really don’t stand a chance."

Related: 10 of Matt Damon's Best Movie Quotes

Who was Luciana Barroso married to before Matt Damon?

Barroso was previously married to a man named Arbello Barroso, per The Sun. Arbello, Alexia's biological father, has praised Damon, calling the Hollywood star "an absolute blessing for my daughter."

“I couldn’t possibly have asked for a better stepfather for my daughter than Matt,” he told Star Magazine in a 2014 interview. “He treats Alexia like she is his own flesh and blood."

Arbello noted that he, his ex-wife and Damon "all have a wonderful relationship," explaining, "People have been hunting me down for years, offering me money and looking for a story. But I could be living in a tent, and I still wouldn’t sell them out. There is no story. Matt is a fantastic stepfather, and Luciana is a terrific mom.”

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What has Matt Damon said about his family and marriage to Luciana?

While Damon is an A-list star, he leads a private life compared to some of his famous pals. "The narrative about me kind of goes, 'He's a boring married guy,' which is great, because I don't get any of that other stuff like Brad Pitt and George Clooney do. People think I'm kind of vanilla and they leave me alone to work, have an actual private life and be a husband and dad," he's previously told Playboy (via Us Weekly).

Damon feels fortunate to have married a woman who wasn't in the spotlight. "I got lucky," he said in a 2013 interview with Esquire. "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. Because then suddenly everybody wants to be in your bedroom. But I don't really give them anything. 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. 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."

Similarly, The Martian star has told Parade magazine that he's been "left alone, even by the paparazzi, because what sells is sex and scandal. Absent that, they really don’t have much interest in you. I’m still married, still working, still happy.”

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