Matt Damon has built a successful career in the film industry, with several blockbuster movies and various leading roles under his belt. He’s among the highest-grossing actors ever, and his films have collectively made over $3.8 billion.
Being husband to his wife, Luciana Barroso, and father to four daughters are the most important roles he’s ever played.
Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso pictured in 2008 at the Empire Film Awards (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
Married since 2005, Matt (51) and Luciana (46) have always kept their personal life very private. Throughout their marriage, they’ve rarely been the subject of dreaded tabloid gossip, which so often drags celebrity names through the mud and destroys marriages.
The couple will be celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary on December 9, 2022. They wed in a private civil ceremony at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau in 2005 and are now parents to four beautiful children.
The eldest, Alexia Barroso, is Luciana’s daughter from her previous marriage to Arbello Barroso and was born in 1998.
Wearing an emerald green Marchesa Pre-Fall 2017 draped dress, Luciana Barroso joined her husband Matt Demon on the red carpet ahead of the ‘Suburbicon’ screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 2, 2017, in Venice, Italy (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
Jesse Plemons’ lookalike has three biological daughters: Isabella, born in June 2006; Gia, born in August 2008; and Stella, born in October 2010.
Who Is Luciana Barroso?
She was born Luciana Bozán on July 31, 1976, in Salta, Argentina, to a housekeeper mother and an insurance agent father.
Her grandmother, originally from Italy, raised Luciana since her parents divorced shortly after she was born.
Argentinian Luciana Barroso, pictured in 2015, worked as an air hostess before meeting Matt Damon (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
Before meeting Matt, Luciana had worked as an interior designer and as a cabin attendant for an airline.
She was previously married to fellow Argentinian Arbello Barroso, and the couple had a daughter together, Alexia. The two amicabl divorced in 2004.
How Did Matt and Luciana Meet?
Luciana and Matt have always said that it was fate they met in Miami.
Their meet-cute started in April 2003, when Matt was filming the movie Stuck on You. Explaining the events that led to their first encounter, Matt told Ellen DeGeneres in 2011: “I don’t know how else our paths would’ve crossed if all those things didn’t happen.”
The 2003 comedy was supposed to be filmed in Hawaii, but the Farrelly brothers, who directed the movie, moved it to Miami.
“We were supposed to shoot in Hawaii, then the movie got moved to Miami. We were shooting in Miami, and I’d never really hung out in Miami. Then one night, in the middle of the shoot, a couple guys [from the crew] said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go get a beer somewhere.’ I said ‘Nah, I’m not really into it’ and they kind of dragged me along.”
They went to Crowbar, where Luciana was working as a bartender. He said: “I literally saw her across a crowded room.”
Luciana Barroso and Matt Damon first met in 2003 while Matt was filming Stuck on You (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
After that, they became inseparable, and by September 2005, the loved-up couple was engaged to be married. While Matt insists that it was love at first sight, Luciana’s version is a little different…
She told Vogue Australia in 2018: “I was working as a bartender in South Beach and he was shooting a movie there. The crew ended up in the bar one Saturday night. Matt’s story is that he saw me across the room and there was a light on me. I’m like, ‘Yeah, it was a nightclub, there were lights everywhere!’”
“But he had started getting recognized and asked for pictures and autographs, then it got kind of aggressive because people are drinking, and so he came and hid behind my bar… just to hang out back there and have a drink. He says ‘oh I saw you and I really wanted to talk to you’,” she continued.
Luciana wasn’t exactly pleased and even had Matt work with her that night. 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. He made me a ton of money in tips that night.”
Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso at the Ford v Ferrari Los Angeles premiere on November 4, 2019 (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
Luciana was a single mom when they met and says it was one of the things Matt loved about her.
“We definitely had a connection right away, it was so easy to talk to each other, we were very comfortable 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 four-year-old daughter, I’m not going anywhere.’”
Instead of reacting negatively, Matt told her: “I love that you’re a mom and that’s your priority.”
“Some guys might have been different, they might think it’s complicated, but for him it wasn’t,” she added.
Matt and Luciana’s Vow Renewal
Eight years after their private civil ceremony, Matt and Luciana decided to renew their wedding vows. This time, they held a lavish but intimate ceremony in the Caribbean.
Wearing a sequined Gustavo Cadile dress, Luciana Damon joined her husband Matt Damon at the “Contagion” premiere during the 68th Venice Film Festival at Palazzo del Cinema on September 3, 2011, in Venice, Italy (Credit: FayesVision / Harald Fuhr / POP / Instar / WENN / Cinzia Camela)
Matt reportedly rented the entire Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort in Saint Lucia, which cost him $1 million. A-list Hollywood celebrities were invited, including Chris Hemsworth, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Jimmy Kimmel, Emily Blunt, and more.
An insider told US Weekly that it wasn’t a “Hollywood” wedding. “Matt wanted it to be fun, happy, and private. He felt like Luciana deserves this, first and foremost.”
Where are Matt and Luciana now?
After spending time living together in Miami and New York, in Brooklyn’s most expensive luxury penthouse, the happy couple moved to LA in 2012. They now reside in the upmarket Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso continue to live their best lives enjoying each other’s company and keeping a low profile from the media – the secret to a happy celebrity marriage!