Matt Damon jumped behind her bar to hide. What happened next is the best part of the story.

Matt Damon was infatuated with his future wife Luciana Barroso from the moment he saw her.

The actor became a household name when he wrote and starred in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting alongside fellow actor and close friend, Ben Affleck.

His rise to fame was swift following its release, and he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay the following year.

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His passion for storytelling began years earlier when he started an English major at Harvard University before dropping out to pursue acting.

Within seven years of leaving the prestigious school, he'd already starred alongside major names in the industry, including Robin Williams.

But it wasn't until 2003, when he met Barroso, that he said he finally felt "lucky".

Their meet-cute is like something out of a rom-com, with Damon telling The Ellen DeGeneres Show that they met in Miami while he was filming Stuck On You.

"I literally saw her across a crowded room, literally," he recalled — one of few times Damon has spoken openly about his wife in the press.

Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso, 2005. Image: Getty.

The funny thing is Barroso remembers the evening they met slightly differently.

"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 told Vogue Australia in 2018.

She was working as a bartender when Damon and his film crew came in for a drink.

"He had started getting recognised and asked for pictures and autographs, and then it got kind of aggressive because people are drinking and stuff," she went on to explain. "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 put him to work instantly.

"'You know, if you're going to be back here, you can't just be standing there,'" she'd told him. "He had trained as a bartender for a film years before, so he started making drinks. And he made me a tonne 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."

At the time, Barroso was already a mother to her eldest daughter, Alexia.

"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 told Vogue Australia.

"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."

Barroso said being a single mother was not "complicated" for Damon, who "loved" that she was a dedicated mother.

"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," she explained.

"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."

Roughly two years on from that evening at the nightclub, the pair got married.

Now, Damon and Barroso have been married for 20 years, and it seems he's as happy as ever.

"I'm lucky I found my wife," he told Entertainment Tonight in 2015. "I guess maybe, if there's any secret [to love]… 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."

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In 2006, the pair welcomed their first daughter together, Isabella — making them a family of four alongside Barroso's daughter, Alexia. Two years later, they had another daughter, Gia, and in 2010 welcomed their youngest, Stella.

He told The Guardian that his wife is his "soulmate".

"My wife is my soulmate. I can't imagine being without her," Damon said in 2012. "Being a parent, as any parent knows, is a lot of work whether you are together or not. Our [then] 13-year-old is terrific, and she's a big help, but with the other kids it's just nonstop."

Both Damon and Barroso have worked hard to maintain all four of their kids' privacy, with the actor explaining he's not "somebody whose story moves magazines."

He explained that at the time of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's divorce, he lived "down the street" from the family. Their highly publicised split gave Damon the realisation that his children do not have to deal with paparazzi often.

"There’s always cars outside their homes," he said, as reported by Today. "They want to see their kids. It’s a different level of intrusion. I don’t have to deal with it and my kids don’t have to deal with it as much."

It's rare the public ever gets to see photos of his kids.

In 2024, he walked the red carpet with his wife and four daughters, Alexia, now 27, Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15 for his new Apple TV film, The Instigators.

Alexia Barroso, Isabella Damon, Gia Damon, Matt Damon, Luciana Barroso and Stella Damon make a rare red carpet appearance. Image: Getty.

The following year they walked again, for the premiere of his new production The Rip.

The 55-year-old actor stood beside his wife and daughters Isabella, Gia and Stella. Social media lit up with admiration, with fans commenting on the girls' poise and how much they take after their mother.

In a moment that captured the family's dynamic, Damon was gently roasted by daughter Gia during the red carpet walk.

In a clip shared by Entertainment Tonight, Gia jokingly mocked her father's pose, asking, "Why are you standing like this?" while mimicking his stance.

Damon responded by laughing and copying her exaggerated posture, in a warm father-daughter moment.

Isabella, Luciana, Matt Damon, Gia and Stella at the premiere. Image: Getty

Being a father, in Damon's eyes, is the most important job he's ever had.

"The way I feel about my family wasn't something I expected," he told The Guardian. "I knew I was going to love being a father and a husband. People who were already parents would tell me: 'It's great!' 'It's wonderful!' But I don't think you can really appreciate it until you experience it for yourself.

"It's really quite something."

Feature Image: Getty.

This article was originally published on March 29, 2023 and has since been updated with new information.

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