Matt Damon announced that his wife of more than 20 years, Luciana “Lucy” Barroso, suffered a brain aneurysm.
The revelation came during an interview with GQ; “The Odyssey” star opened up while feeling a sense of FOMO while watching the Oscars from bed with his wife and then-newborn baby.
At the 79th Academy Awards held in 2007, Martin Scorsese was nominated for the best director award for his movie “The Departed”, which was also nominated for best picture. Damon plays a corrupt police officer in the movie.
“Lucy and I were laying in bed watching the movie and we were so nervous for Marty,” she told the magazine. “Then when she won, I was jumping up and down in the bedroom and I remember being really excited. Then the next category was best picture and The Departed won. And at that moment I realized I never thought this could happen. I turned to Lucy and said, ‘F—, we have to be there!’ I said. … I totally ruined it.”
After this experience, Damon said that he would not let his wife pass up this opportunity again, even after severe medical trauma.
In 2024, “Oppenheimer” won the award for best picture. In the film, Damon plays Colonel Leslie R. Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. The film won the award and Barroso had a surprise this time; Even though she had surgery after suffering a brain aneurysm, she’s ready to go to the big night, an Oscar-worthy dress.
“Very well, thank God,” he said. “However [she] He had this brain surgery the week before the Oscars. But it was the first night he felt well enough to wake up and regain his energy. She surprised me, bought me a dress, and we went to the after-party because she remembered that the last time this happened, I didn’t do this. He said, ‘We’re going out this time.’ And for him to do that was pretty heroic and really meaningful.
Born in Argentina, Barroso and Damon remarried in 2005. They met two years ago, and during an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2011, Damon said meeting his wife was pure serendipity.
In 2002, he was shooting the movie “Stuck on You” under the direction of the Farrelly brothers. “We were supposed to shoot in Hawaii, and then the movie moved to Miami… and I never hung out in Miami,” he told DeGeneres, adding that in the middle of shooting, a few members of the crew invited him out for beers at a local watering hole. “They kind of dragged me away and we went to a bar where my wife was a bartender and I literally saw her across a crowded room.
“And eight years and four kids later, this is my life,” he joked. “I don’t know how else our paths would have crossed if this hadn’t happened.”