Good Will Hunting propelled both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's careers into the spotlight.
But it did the very same thing for Minnie Driver too.
Not only was the movie good for their acting careers, but it was during that time that
both Minnie and Matt fell in love with each other.
Unfortunately, it was a romance that went up in flames when Damon broke up with Driver
in the cruelest way possible.
Matt Damon and Minnie Driver's romance is often one people forget about.
Maybe it's because of the way the couple broke up that fans would rather forget that they
were ever together.
So what actually happened that made their breakup so messy?
Matt and Minnie met when she came in to audition for her role in Good Will Hunting in 1996.
In the movie, she played the part of Matt's love interest.
We aren't sure when exactly they started dating, but it's clear that the pair hit it off pretty
soon because their on-screen chemistry was undeniable.
The actress recalled their first meeting, "They were really late, they were like an
hour late.
And then they exploded into the suite, and they were so sorry, and there was something
about a broken foot… and they were really hungover."
She described seeing Matt and Ben like "a bunch of really sweet labradors kind of tumbled
into this thing, and I was like, 'Oh wow, these kids, these guys wrote Good Will Hunting?'
"
By the time they had to film their scenes together, the actress had confessed that she
was "completely in love with Matt."
She added, "I was blown away by his commitment to me as an actor; he was cute and intelligent
and altogether a really charming package.
I was young, and I fell for him — it's an occupational hazard."
The following year, the couple were spotted out and about the town.
How could we even forget the famous image of Matt with his small round sunglasses and
Minnie in her bright red cardigan?
While the couple's romance flew mostly under the radar, there was no question that they
were together.
They attended red-carpet events together, with Matt's arms wrapped around her while
she glowed with happiness.
It was pretty clear that Matt and Minnie were smitten with each other.
During an interview with David Letterman, Damon gushed about Driver, sharing that she
"pretty much rocked my world."
But as the couple grew practically inseparable, the actress's family started to get worried
about how fast they were moving in their relationship.
In fact, they even warned her to be careful.
However, she confessed that her friends and family helped her gain a little perspective
on their relationship.
Minnie explained, "My family loved Matt — it wasn't that.
It was that they could see that this young man was rocketing really fast, and so was
I, and when you're young, it's pretty hard to keep your head on straight and to maintain
a grounded sense of deportment."
Her family even warned that their relationship might end badly because of the combination
of their fast-growing fame and all the pressure that comes along with it.
She added, "And also, like, you shouldn't date someone you work with."
Unfortunately, it turns out that Minnie's family was right in warning her about her
relationship because it was only one month after he was gushing over his love for the
actress that he appeared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey with some very surprising news.
When Matt was asked about his relationship with Minnie, he shared that he was actually
single.
The actor said, "I was with Minnie for a while, but we're not really romantically involved
anymore; we're just really good friends.
I love her dearly.
I care about her a lot.
We care about each other a lot.
It wasn't meant to be, and if it wasn't meant to be, then it's not meant to be."
While fans were shocked by the news, the person who was most shocked of all was Minnie.
She had no idea that Matt was even going to break up with her at all, and then she suddenly
found out that she had been dumped on television in front of millions of people all over the
world.
The actress was devastated.
She struggled to wrap her head around the fact that Matt would have broken her heart
in such a heartless and careless way.
Minnie confessed that the breakup felt like an "agony" and a "strange, surreal dream."
adding that it was "horrendous breaking up with someone" in such a public way.
Naturally, the tabloids went wild with the news.
They painted her as the victimized, wronged woman, which was something that the actress
didn't appreciate at all.
She was trying to handle the breakup as best as she could, but the media had turned her
heartbreak into public entertainment.
But the actress did her best to keep her head held high, no matter how the press was chosen
to portray her.
"It's unfortunate that Matt went on 'Oprah'; it seemed like a good forum for him to announce
to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate.
Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously."
Of course, it should go without saying that breaking up with someone you've dated for
over a year by telling the world instead of them is a brutal thing to do.
With that in mind, it is amazing that Driver had the class describe Damon's actions as
"unfortunate" and "fantastically inappropriate."
When you keep in mind the fact that so many stars seem to love throwing shade at their
exes in public, it is all the more amazing that Driver took the high road.
Just as we thought that the breakup could not have been more painful for Minnie, soon
after Matt's surprising public breakup announcement, he was spotted around L.A with another actress
… Winona Ryder (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsEO8LALcyo - 0.01).
Their outings only fueled tabloids even more and had everyone asking the same question.
Did Matt leave Minnie for Winona?
The actress later described the split as "grim," explaining that the relationship "turned from
this beautiful thing into something so dark."
She was devastated by the way things ultimately shook out.
"I'm always really sad that we didn't stay friends because it was absolutely incandescent
making that film."
When it came time for the 1998 Oscars, where Good Will Hunting was nominated for several
awards, Matt arrived with Winona on his arm as his date.
Their arrival together only seemed to confirm what everyone had already been assuming.
There's no way anyone could have imagined how Minnie had felt, watching her ex win an
Oscar for a movie they had starred in together.
But it seems like Matt learned his lesson when it came to speaking about relationships
to the public.
When he was interviewed once again with Oprah Winfrey, and she asked about his love life,
the actor answered, "I've pretty much learned that there can be no advantage gained by putting
that in the public consciousness."
There's no doubt that Minnie was shattered by the whole public ordeal, along with how
the world had framed her as the heartbroken, victimized woman.
But she never regretted her decision to work with Matt.
In fact, during a 2014 interview, the actress expressed that she was "grateful" to Damon
and Affleck for advocating for her to get the part in Good Will Hunting.
She explained that the producer of the film - Harvey Weinstein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2HbMGCewU
- 0.05) - had thought she wasn't "hot enough" for the role.
But Matt and Ben pushed her for it, and she got the part.
Minnie confessed that it was her late father that gave her the advice she needed to hear
that healed her heart.
One morning, she was sitting on the steps outside her house in London when her father
came out to speak to her.
She was still heartbroken over the breakup, knowing that Matt had left her for another
woman, and she didn't know how to get over the pain.
The actress shared her father's words, "He was like, 'Listen.
You're not going to want to hear this, but the best thing I can tell you is, you're definitely
going to feel this way about somebody else.'
"
Naturally, Minnie felt like that wasn't what she needed to hear.
She actually told her dad that it was "terrible advice" and that she didn't feel any better.
It wasn't until much later that she realized, "He was so right!"
Her breakup with Matt had taught her a lot of lessons.
She learned a lot about love, headache, and also about work.
At first, she thought that after her role in Good Will Hunting, it would be easier for
her to get more work.
The actress explained, "And then I didn't.
I've had to fight really hard for every job I ever got.
I feel like that was the first lesson.
It's never just going to come easily.
And I think that's okay because the payoff is huge, like emotionally being able to do
what you love for a living and make money at it."
Since then, a lot has changed for Minnie and Matt.
He has been married to Luciana Barroso (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFNlpGTTARw - 0.11) for about 17 years, and they have
three daughters together.
On the other hand, Minnie had been engaged to Addison O'Dea (https://forvo.com/search/O%27Dea/en_usa/
- Pronunciation for surname: O’Dea) since 2019.
She also has a son from her previous relationship with Timothy J. Lea.
During a 2021 interview, Minnie revealed that she randomly bumped into Matt Damon on a beach
after more than 20 years of not talking to one another.
According to how Driver described that event, their interaction sounded quite friendly.
She shared, "It was actually very nice to see him, and his kids, and his wife, and it
all felt quite middle-aged actually, which was reassuring.
I feel like so much of the folly of youth went on with our initial relationship, like
it was amazing and tabloidy.
So that was nice, to just have sort of a middle-aged conversation about the weather and stuff."
While it's clear that both Minnie and Matt moved on from their messy breakup to live
very separate but happy lives, a lot of people can't seem to forgive the brutal way that
Damon broke up with Driver all those years ago.
It was definitely one of the most shocking Hollywood breakups.
But we're happy that they went on with their lives and started their own families.
We only wish them the best for their future!