Matt Damon surprised fans by sharing a long-kept personal detail about his wife, Luciana Barroso, and his lifelong best friend Ben Affleck, revealing that when they first met, Barroso initially found Affleck more attractive. 

The candid confession came during Damon’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Monday, Jan. 12, and quickly became a standout moment of the interview.

“This is f****ing completely true,” Damon, 55, said when Stern asked whether Affleck, 53, was around the night he met his future wife. 

Damon explained that the truth came out months into their relationship, after he met Barroso’s best friend from high school. 

The two women had gone to see Good Will Hunting together years earlier, and their opinions about the film’s stars were very different. 

Damon recalled, “After we’d been together for a little while, probably a few months, she admitted that — I think I met her best friend from high school and it came out that the two of them went and saw Good Will Hunting together and her best friend thought I was the cute one and she thought Ben was the cute one.”

Damon said he jokingly confronted his wife about it at the time, telling Stern, “So she admitted to me… I’m like, ‘You got the wrong one?!’ She told me that 23 years ago.” 

When Stern asked whether hearing something like that lingers over time, Damon and Affleck pointed out that their bond has only grown stronger, both personally and professionally.

Barroso, now 49, currently works closely with both men and serves as a producer on The Rip and Affleck’s upcoming directorial project Animals.

Affleck joked that he never sensed any romantic tension, saying Barroso is “a great producer and a really good friend,” adding that whatever attraction existed clearly faded once she met him in real life. 

“Finally she met him and all that went away,” Damon replied, drawing laughs in the studio.

The conversation turned playful when Stern suggested it would be “devastating” if Barroso ever left Damon for Affleck. 

Damon agreed without hesitation, saying, “If my two favourite people just exited my life? Yeah, that would suck.”

Damon and Affleck famously rose to fame together with Good Will Hunting, which earned them Oscars, and Damon later met Barroso in Miami while filming Stuck on You. 

The couple married in 2005 and share four daughters, Alexia, Isabella, Gia and Stella. 

Affleck, who has witnessed their relationship over the years, praised their marriage, calling it “a really gorgeous marriage and friendship.”

Damon also revealed that he barely remembers who was with him the night he met Barroso because he was so taken by her. 

“I couldn’t remember who I was with ’cause all I remembered was her,” he said, a comment Affleck jokingly qualified by saying Damon was “hammered” but smart enough to phrase it romantically.

More than two decades later, Damon’s story landed as a reminder of the deep friendship and humour that still define his bond with both his wife and his best friend.