There are moments when even the best of us struggle to maintain a healthy loving relationship. But when you also happen to be an A-list celebrity in Hollywood — the difficulty increases tenfold.
Yet somehow, in spite of surmounting odds, Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso remain as in love and dedicated to one another as ever before. Now, as the couple prepares to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary, Matt is opening up on he found his soul mate .
Matt and Lucy’s serendipitous meet-cute occurred in a Miami bar almost 20 years ago.
As the story goes, Matt was in town to shoot the ill-fated comedy Stuck On You , when one night he and the crew wandered unbeknownst into the bar Lucy was working at.
Remember bars? Before the world met each other online?
“Matt’s story is that he saw me across the room and there was a light on me,” Lucy told ‘Vogue Australia’.
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Which, if you ask me, is just about the SWEETEST THING anyone could ever say.
“And I’m like: ‘yeah it was a nightclub – there were lights everywhere !’” she said with a laugh.
Matt made his way behind the bar in order to hide from the increasingly-aggressive crowd.
“So I put him to work with me!” Lucy explained. “I said: ‘You know, if you’re going to be back here, you can’t just be standing there !’”
After a night of hard work, Matt worked up the courage to ask Lucy to come out with him and the crew after her shift.
But as Lucy explained, she had a four-year-old daughter waiting for her at home.
Most men would’ve been scared off by this admission, but it only further endeared Matt to Lucy.
And honestly, I would have felt the same way. What a great first impression, in my opinion.
Two years later, the couple was wed in a civil ceremony at city hall.
As Matt explained during a press run for his film Elysium , the media had gotten wind that they were planning their nuptials.
Which isn’t that surprising, considering how quickly the media can grab hold of ANYTHING. Kind of scary, really.
The couple decided to forego the inevitable publicity of a big wedding and got married on their terms at city hall .
Two years later, Matt and Lucy decided to renew their vows and celebrate their love with their families.
When Matt was probed to name the reason as to why he and Lucy have been able to maintain such a happy and healthy marriage, he boils it down to one thing — luck.
“I got lucky,” he said in an interview with ‘Esquire’.
“I fell in love with a civilian. Not an actress and not a famous actress at that.”
Not that I can relate, but I can imagine that doing so can sometimes make things complicated.
He truly believes it helps their relationship.
Matt believes that the fact that Lucy wasn’t among the Hollywood elite that it makes it far easier for the two of them to live a quiet ” boring ” life together.
However, that isn’t to say that Matt’s job as an actor doesn’t present its own unique set of challenges.
In order to keep their romance alive, Matt explained during an interview with YourTango that he and Lucy abide by a very specific set of rules.
“We have a two week rule,” Damon explained. “I’m not away for more than two weeks.”
“I think you need to be with the person you love as much as possible. My wife is my soul mate. I don’t like being apart from her .”
Matt also made sure to mention how much their daughters enrich their lives.
While making an appearance on the TODAY show, the Oscar-winning actor said “I’m learning so much, not the least of which is how much smarter girls are .”
With each passing year, Matt and Lucy’s love continues to grow.
Through the trials and tribulations of love and parenthood, Matt and Lucy continue to lean on and learn from one another. We should all be so lucky to find a love like theirs.
