Matt Damon's Daughters Are Growing Up So Fast
We all know him as Jason Bourne, Linus Caldwell, or Mr. Ripley, but to his four daughters, Matt Damon is just plain old "dad." There are plenty of celebrities who have kids nobody knows about, and the "Air" actor is high on this list, given that he tends to remain private about his family and shelters his girls from the spotlight.
Damon has been dubbed the "king of dad movies" by Collider, but he's also steered closer toward family-fun movies, like "We Bought a Zoo," since having children. Unsurprisingly, he uses his own experiences as inspiration for some of his roles. In 2021, Damon spoke to Fatherly about the movie "Stillwater," in which he plays a dad who is estranged from his daughter. "I feel like fatherhood has made my job a lot easier in a lot of ways. All those emotions that I used to have to reach for are just readily accessible. I don't have to twist myself into knots to find something — it's just sitting right there all the time," he said.
Over the years, Damon's daughters have brought encouragement and motivation for the actor. The world has gotten to know them through the bite-sized anecdotes Damon tells on talk shows, and they've made a couple of appearances at events to support their dad. Here's everything there is to know about the "Good Will Hunting" actor's daughters, who are growing up so fast.
Matt Damon has four daughters with Luciana Barroso
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. "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," she said. 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. "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,'" Barroso explained. After dating for two years, the pair tied the knot in 2005 and have been together ever since.
The "Downsizing" actor became a stepfather to Barroso's daughter, and the happy couple went on to have three more daughters together.
Alexia Barroso
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" (via People).
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.
And, when Alexia became a teenager, Damon taught her how to drive, just like a normal father. 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."
Isabella Damon
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. In 2021, Damon told E! News about Isabella's reactions to his films. "If the reviews come out and they're terrible, then she'll watch it. If they come out and they're good, she's going to pass," he quipped. Damon then went on to praise his daughter, saying, "She's looking for ammunition all the time. She's like one of the funniest people I've ever met. She's really cool."
All of his daughters are growing up so quickly, and now that Isabella is a teenager and the oldest daughter in the house, since 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. "[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," he remarked.
Gia Damon
Gia Damon was born on August 20, 2008, becoming the third daughter in the Damon household. Upon her arrival, Matt Damon 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, the actor 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. "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," he said.
Stella Damon
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. "I've learned that if you decide not to sleep, you pick up all these extra hours in the day ... " he said. "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 the "Elysium" lead did with Hello! Canada, their entire dynamic shifted. "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," the actor explained (via People). 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. The actor 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."