Celebrities go through the same ups and downs as regular people when it comes to romantic issues. Similarly, Hollywood hunk Matt Damon, renowned for his boy-next-door charm and indisputable talent, had a number of high-profile relationships following his split from Minnie Driver. The former couple was said to have split up just before an award season, having first connected while filming their 1997 flick (Good Will Hunting).
After dating for a year, Damon ended their relationship when he publicly declared himself single in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Well, he was one of the most sought-after bachelors prior to getting married to Luciana Barroso. It goes without saying that during his younger years, the Academy Award winner socialized with several Hollywood elites, leading to numerous romantic relationships.
Let us take a closer look at the three celebrities Damon dated who won his heart after Minnie Driver.
1. Winona Ryder
Matt Damon and Winona Ryder, who had a somewhat contentious beginning to their relationship, are among the more forgotten pairs in Hollywood. As per Yahoo, the Ponyo actor met her through his close friend Ben Affleck’s then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow.
Although Damon dated Minnie Driver during the Good Will Hunting filming, the Los Angeles Times reported that Ryder, whom he supposedly met in 1997, accompanied the Invictus star to Oscar parties in 1998. But in May 2000, after a few years together, the two called it quits.
Ryder, who gained notoriety from successful box office films such as Edward Scissorhands, Heathers, and Beetlejuice, will next be seen in Beetlejuice 2. On the personal front, she has been dating Scott Mackinlay Hahn since 2011.
2. Odessa Whitmire
Although not much is known about Matt Damon and Odessa Whitmire’s reported relationship, Ranker claimed that the two had a romance that started in 2001 and continued until 2003. Meanwhile, according to PEOPLE, Damon, 53, who had dated Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver before, reportedly met Whitmire in September 2001 when his friend Ben Affleck checked into the Promises rehabilitation center.
The two were secretly dating for two years, according to FamousFix. They only got together in public for the international premieres of The Bourne Identity in Taipei, Taiwan, and Sydney, Australia. Damon, however, decided not to date another celebrity after their roughly two-year romance ended.
The now 53-year-old actor stated the following in a 2004 interview with Sydney’s Sunday Magazine (per Today):
“These days I definitely only date, as we say, ‘civilians’.”
Damon kept his word and eventually married a professional woman.
3. Luciana Barroso
The most amazing love stories can occasionally appear out of nowhere. In 2003, while filming Stuck on You, Matt Damon had a chance encounter at a bar with Luciana Barroso that would change his life. Yes, PEOPLE reported that the two hit it off right away when they first met at the bar where she used to work. In 2018, Barroso recalled telling Vogue.
“I was working as a bartender in South Beach (Miami) and he was shooting a movie there and the crew ended up in the bar one Saturday night.”
After becoming engaged in September 2005, they were married on December 9, 2005, in a low-key civil ceremony at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. According to PEOPLE, they had a small celebration when they reaffirmed their vows in 2020, with fifty guests in attendance.
They are now the parents of three adorable daughters. Damon also has a stepdaughter from Barroso’s previous marriage whom he considers his own (per Closer Weekly).
On the work front, the actor will next be seen in Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, Doug Liman’s The Instigators, and Billy Goldenberg’s Unstoppable.
