Matt Damon has a beautiful family of six,
which includes his four daughters. And they're all growing up to be downright gorgeous.
Back in 2003, Matt Damon met the love of his life in a Miami nightclub. Argentine bartender
Luciana Barroso was just a regular person, but her lack of fame didn't stop her from clicking
with the actor right away. As she told Vogue Australia in 2018, Damon was getting recognized
at the club so he hid behind the bar where Barroso was serving customers. She revealed,
"He says, 'Oh, I saw you and I really wanted to talk to you.' ... 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."
The two worked the night away behind the bar and Barroso said that his fame drew quite a crowd,
which brought in a lot of tips for her. At the end of the night,
Damon invited Barroso out, but she refused because she had to get home
to her 4-year-old daughter she had from a previous relationship. Barroso said,
"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.'"
After dating for two years, the pair tied the knot in 2005 and have been together ever since.
"Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?"
The "Downsizing" actor became a stepfather to Barroso's daughter,
and the happy couple went on to have three more daughters together.
Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso's family of six began with Alexia Barroso,
whom Luciana had in 1999 with her then-husband, Arbello Barroso. Alexia
became Damon's stepdaughter in 2005 when she was 6 years old, and the "The Martian"
actor raised her like she was his own flesh and blood. Damon has admitted that his life changed
dramatically when he began going out with Luciana, as he told Hello! Canada in 2010,
"Suddenly, it wasn't just my wife. It was her 4-year-old little girl. There
was never a choice. It was just the way it was, and I was happy for that."
Damon has been a prominent father figure for Alexia, and they have what has been
described as a close relationship. Although he does maintain a private personal life,
Damon let Alexia experience some of the perks that come with having a famous stepdad. He
allowed her to cameo as zoo staff in his 2011 movie "We Bought a Zoo" when she was a preteen.
When Alexia became a teenager, Damon taught her how to drive. He told USA Today,
reportedly with the smile of a proud dad,
"My oldest daughter just got her license yesterday. She
would drive last year just to school every morning. We'd get in the car and drive."
On June 11, 2006, Luciana Barroso and Matt Damon welcomed their first daughter together,
Isabella Damon. They became a family of four and, little did they know at the time,
the "Contagion" star would soon have his toughest critic. Speaking with Seth Meyers,
Matt Damon made a hilarious admission about his daughter.
"She is very clear about not wanting to see anything I'm in if she thinks it might be good."
All of his daughters are growing up so quickly, and now that Isabella is a teenager and Alexia is
grown up, the actor said that parenting has become more difficult. In 2021, Damon told Fatherly,
"I can't put a foot right. My 15-year-old, especially. I am so uncool. ... She's actually
one of the funniest people I know, which makes it worse because she just crushes me."
The actor said that he still had a little more time with
his two youngest daughters before they reached their teen years. and that he's
thankful he got to spend more time with Isabella during the pandemic. He said,
"[The pandemic was] a time when she should be starting
to push away and do her own thing. On a selfish level, I'm kind of happy."
Gia Damon was born on August 20, 2008, becoming the third daughter in the Damon
household. When she was born, Matt was asked by People how he feels about being
outnumbered by girls at home, to which he replied, "It's great. It is really great."
Since becoming a father, Damon has also had to juggle parenting his kids with his Hollywood
career and movie commitments. At times, the "Ocean's Eleven" actor has chosen family over
fame and has been known to take periodic breaks from filming so he can spend time with his loved
ones. In a 2008 interview with USA Today, Damon mentioned that he would be taking a break from
work for the rest of the year. Luciana Barroso was pregnant with Gia then, so Damon said he
would be "taking the rest of the year off, and I'm just hanging out with my family."
At the time, Gia didn't have a name yet, and in the interview,
Damon explained that he and Luciana had yet to decide what to call her. He said,
"We decided to wait 'til she's born,
and then we're going to get a look at her and we'll probably keep debating it."
The youngest daughter of the Damon crew, Stella Damon, was born on October 20,
2010. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Matt Damon remarked that the arrival of
his fourth daughter had made things slightly hectic at the time. He said,
"I've learned that if you decide not to sleep, you pick up all these extra hours
in the day…It's a little relentless, but I mean that in a good way."
Not only did four children complicate things a little bit for the couple, but according to
an interview Damon did with Hello! Canada, their entire dynamic shifted. He revealed,
"It's been pretty crazy. [Stella] came a couple of weeks early. It's our fourth,
so we've done it before — but it's a whole new dynamic."
Stella also marked the growth of the family to six people and gave Damon a reason to get
four new tattoos in honor of each of his daughters. Despite the changing schedules
Damon and Luciana Barroso had to adjust to, the actor said that he wouldn't want
things any other way. He referred to parenthood in his interview, saying,
"It was very different, it's true, but I can't imagine my life having not gone
down that road. I can't imagine what my life would be now. I don't want to imagine it."