Matt Damon met his wife Luciana when he was down in Miami in 2002 filming Stuck on You and she was tending bar. He explains it like he saw her, it was love at first sight, and his whole life changed in an instant. It’s really romantic the way Matt describes it, like a series of random events led him to Lucy and he still marvels at how everything lined up for them to end up together.
Lucy was separated from her husband and was a single mom to a four year-old daughter at the time. (Her divorce was finalized in 2004.) She ended up having three more kids with Matt, all girls, the youngest of whom turns four this fall. From the beginning of their relationship Matt took in Luciana’s first daughter, Alexia, like she was her own. Up to this point, Alexia’s dad, Arby Barroso, hasn’t spoken to the press at all and I’ve never heard his name until now. For some reason (probably money) Arby did an interview with Star Magazine, and all he did was gush about how awesome Matt is and how glad he is that Matt is in his daughter’s life. It was really sweet. Here’s some of what he said.
“Matt, Luciana and I all have a wonderful relationship,” Arby Barroso, the ex-husband of Matt’s wife and the father of Matt’s stepdaughter, Alexia, tells Star in an exclusive interview. “People have been hunting me down for years, offering me money and looking for a story. But I could be living in a tent, and I still wouldn’t sell them out. There is no story. Matt is a fantastic stepfather, and Luciana is a terrific mom.
“I couldn’t possibly have asked for a better stepfather for my daughter than Matt,” Arby, 43, tells Star in his first ever interview. “He treats Alexia like she is his own flesh and blood. Matt has been an absolute blessing for my daughter.”
“I used to provide for my daughter, but then the market went down. Everyones had their troubles, and I had mine. But Matt’s been providing for Alexia now for 10 years, and he treats my daughter great…
“She’s a wonderful daughter and I feel blessed that she was a beautiful family who love her.”
[From Star Magazine, print edition, August 4, 2014]
That “I could be living in a tent” comment makes me think that Matt gives this guy money, not that he shouldn’t or that Arby still wouldn’t love Matt for being awesome to his daughter. It just sounds like Matt has been helping him out.
There’s not much to say except that Matt Damon is an awesome person. I never, ever want to read a negative rumor about him. I don’t even want to hear that he’s been rude to anyone. He’s like Hugh Jackman, he’s known for being a great guy.
Note: these are all pics of Damon being a hot dad to his younger daughters. I couldn’t find a recent pic of Alexia. Matt is also shown outside the gym this month and in June.
Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
Yeah must be nice that someone else has taken over your child support for the last 10 years. When you marry a woman with a child you are obviously going to be supporting that child that lives with you. This is not Matt being a nice guy but a parent to his wife’s child.
It sounds like he (the biological father) has been given some money to maybe stay away. It is funny that after all this time he is giving an interview for no reason. Just out of the blue.
Yeah, I have to admit as I read this the cynical side of me wondered if the guy loves Matt as much as he loves his money. I don’t doubt that Matt treats Alexia as his own, though, and it is nice that the dad recognizes that.
Yeah I guess it is impossible for the guy to actually have a positive thought right. It’s always negative and people are always saying good things because of monetary gain. How about accepting that this is a good story rather than looking for the negative interpretation. There are good people in the world and some of them are even men.
That’s not what anyone is saying; and as I pointed out. Why now??
I don’t think anyone has ever really asked about the biological father ever. So again all of a sudden.
Well the man said himself that the market went down so he could no longer provide for her so it is monetary gain in a way. I can’t afford my child support Matt so thank you for providing for my daughter.
Hear hear Mike! 😀
Agreed, Mike.
I think you are being way too harsh. I mean he could work really hard every day of his life and not make even a small fraction of what Damon makes for one film. That’s not his fault and it doesn’t make him a deadbeat. In this case asking for child support would be silly.
Yeah, it’s a good story about a man who steps up as a parent. And I don’t think there was an exchange of $ for the story – that was his point – he could have spoken for $$ but has not.
My mother adored my dad’s second wife. There was no money involved whatsoever. Parents tend to like people who treat their children well, and that is all there is to it. I think it’s sad that people expect any differently.
Agree with Emily C. Matt takes great care of his daughter and that means everything to him, like it should. It seems like the gossip sites keep pressing the dad for negative stories and he made these comments out of frustration with people looking for dirt that doesn’t exist. I think it’s a great story. Matt a Damon is an incredibly classy dude.
I totally agree Celebitchy, from your lips to Gods ears I never want to hear anything bad about him. He’s just the best.
Only movie stars get their outfits or gowns discussed at events or red carpets, never just the non-famous wives, but I have rarely,if ever, ever seen Lucy looking anything but fantastic as far as dressed for her body type and great style and colors to go with her skin tone. She has a great figure.
always thought she was very beautiful. and, it’s nice that, unlike so many non-famous people who marry movie stars, she was NOT in it to get famous on her own.
So agree. Thank god for small favors. We don’t have to see her pimping herself out on a daily basis with yoga poses. She isn’t trying to get on TV or be a hostess for a show, doing magazine covers, etc. She isn’t writing a cookbook or pimping out her kids either. I barely know what they look like and even now I wouldn’t recognize any of the children if I saw them in a photo.
I do however wonder what this guy means by Matt providing for his daughter for 10 years. Does this mean this guy hasn’t worked in 10 years? Or doesn’t bother to help support his child? Becasuse if so that is total BS since he could have found a job in 10 years even if it mean moving away. I think he is a deadbeat and Matt and Luciana are decent enough people to still let him see his daughter because they believe that is important to their daugther. Or else, he isn’t in her life at all, which is probably just as well, considering he is giving interviews to Star magazine.
Right. Classy, age appropriate and self-confident. Her man loves her and it shows.
But, from the look in her eyes, something or someone on the red carpet (Not Matt!) pissed her off big time – perhaps Christina Aguilera was walking by when the photo was snapped?
His wife looks gorgeous in that top photo.
Sweet. It’s nice for the kids that they get along.
Matt’s girls are all so gorgeous!
This is good to hear, even if the guy is doing it for money, sounds like he appreciates Matt either way. I was skeptical about Matt because of the way he supposedly broke up with Minnie Driver, but he seems to be a decent guy and a good father. I thought it was sweet when he talked about how one of his favorite memories is making his children with his wife, so damn cute!
The Minnie Driver story is false and they broke up before the show.
Minnie Driver admitted she lied about their break up. (I had wondered that it seemed out of character for him to act so douchily.)
Can this man be cloned?? Let’s pool our money and find out.
This, 1000 times and more!
10 to the 10th power, this!
Yes! I want one.
Call me unnecessarily suspicious but I’m wondering why this guy is all of a sudden talking now about how great Matt is. Like, what’s the motive behind it? Why now? He’s been silent for 10 years and he just out of the blue felt the urge to give this interview now. I just feel like this is some kind of preemptive strike. For what, I have no idea, but something about this just seems off to me.
Anyway, yeah Matt’s just like Jackman. They have a whole lot in common if the gossip is to be believed.
Ha ha @jinni – I don’t think folks on here can handle that bit of info.
with other celebs such an “interview” would have been released during awards season.
@Celebitchy …
I am convinced that Luciana’s ex-husband–who is ‘Cuban,’ by the way–is how that whole “Cuba Blue” blind vice came about that Lainey [Gossip] started. Like the ex-husband said, he has been under the radar for years. It’s possible that he lived in the Damons’ guest house in Florida for a while when (as he says) he was really down on his luck. Everyone (except for Matt’s die-hard fans, like me) assumed Luciana had been a single Mom when Matt met her, not a married woman going through a divorce. Someone saw Matt hanging out with a Cuban man, who was (probably) living in their guest house, and assumed the guy was a secret male lover of Matt’s and not someone connected to Luciana and her daughter.
That’s my second bone of contention against Lainey for irresponsible gossip/blogging/journalism … take your pick. The first is the load of unverified crap she posted about Julia Stiles and Michael C. Hall that went viral like wildfire.
And by the way, Celebitchy, if I haven’t said this lately … you, Kaiser, and Bedhead rock the shite. Thank (all of) you for making it fun and keeping it real. 🙂
+ 1 … this celebrity gossip blog/site is the only one that never lets me down. Writing is always better when it comes from a place of compassion and curiosity, rather than click-baiting and body-shaming and speculating.
Good point, never saw the situation from this perspective – commenters on here have excellent writing as well 🙂
I was wondering about that rumour and came down here to see if anyone was discussing it. I always assumed that there was more proof to Matt Damon’s swinging both ways rumours. Do you know if the one about the ex-husband is the only one? I also remember reading many times over the years that Lucianna heavily pursued Matt, and that his “I saw her in a bar” was to gloss that over. Who knows *shrugs*. Some blinds are right, many are wrong.
@Littlestar, who wrote: “I always assumed that there was more proof to Matt Damon’s swinging both ways rumours. Do you know if the one about the ex-husband is the only one? I also remember reading many times over the years that Lucianna heavily pursued Matt, and that his “I saw her in a bar” was to gloss that over. Who knows *shrugs*. Some blinds are right, many are wrong.”
Regarding the ‘gay’ rumors … No, before this ‘Cuba Blue’ nonsense, the ‘rumors’ were just based on the fact that Ben and Matt are so close; which really isn’t a big mystery, when you consider that they’ve known each other–and have been best friends–since Ben was 8 and Matt was 10. People just ‘assumed’ they were gay because two men can’t be close friends otherwise, right?
And for the life of me I don’t know how people got ‘Matt Damon’ from the ‘Cuba’ blind vice–other than the Cuban man he knows, who is his wife’s ex-husband. First of all, Matt ‘never’ had a reputation/was considered to be a ‘bad’ boy so there was nothing for him to have ‘reformed’ from. Nor was Matt living in a ‘free-styling environment’ in Miami, unless the city itself is considered ‘free-styling.’ And Damon has been described as many things, but hot ‘and’ horny together isn’t one of them. So yes, I believe someone saw Matt with Luci’s ex-husband or found out the ‘ex’ was living on their property and jumped to conclusions without knowing all of the circumstances involved.
About Luci … why in the world would they make up a story about her working as a bartender if she wasn’t??? That’s an easy lie to disprove, and no body has come forward saying it wasn’t true. Based upon the ex’s tale above, he probably wasn’t a stable financial source, so Luci had to work (not to mention the legal fees if they were in the process of a divorce). The way Matt told the story back in the day, the cast of the film “Stuck on You” found a bar they liked (it’s called ‘Crobar’ … in South Beach, but it closed in 2005) and went there after work. One night some people were hassling Matt, so he moved away and walked behind the bar. Luci, who was tending that section of the bar, had gone to the stock room to get something. When she came back she saw him and said “What the hell are you doing back here?” He sat at the bar and talked to her the rest of the night while she fixed drinks. He said he came back again and again to talk to her until he finally asked her out and she said okay.
I really don’t know where the notion that Luci was a conniving, gold-digger, single waitress in some ‘seedy’ bar with a kid who bragged about going after Matt Damon came from. I myself have never read anything hinting that Luci pursued Matt, other than from comments at Gossip sites.
Did that help?
Yes! Thank you for this post. Never believed that blind or the rumor about Julia and Michael C. Hall. In fact I detest blinds on the whole.
@I Choose Me, who wrote: “Never believed that blind or the rumor about Julia and Michael C. Hall. In fact I detest blinds on the whole.”
I know, me too! And the saddest part is that Julia Stiles may never have another ‘Awards’ season as she did when she Guest Starred on “Dexter,” and it was completely ruined by the crap Lainey posted and the speculation/scrutiny that followed for months. A photographer actually followed Julia Stiles on a vacation trip with a few of her friends to Hawaii in the hope of catching her and Michael C. Hall together. What he found instead (based upon his high-powered lens photographs) was a young actress chilling with a few close friends–male and female–after a grueling acting job with a violent plot-line (It’s also obvious by those bikini pictures that Julia hasn’t had a bit of ‘work’ done to her body, which is refreshing).
http://www.celebuzz.com/2011-01-24/julia-stiles-shows-off-bikini-body-in-hawaii-photos/
It’s a shame Julia Stiles was robbed of her chance to savor a possible one-in-a-life-time experience as an actress of being nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award in the same year. Sad.
Arby has every reason to gush. Matt Damon has been a God send for Arby’s daughter and his ex-wife. And as many of you have guessed, Damon probably gives him a nice chunk of change as well. If Arby loves his daughter at all he will be thankful that his daughter has both a good step-father and financial security for the rest of her life. Since the divorce wasn’t finalized until 2 years after Luciana met Matt, I wonder if Matt paid Arby off to sign the divorce papers and go away so that he could marry her. I think many people would want a pay off if they found out that a rich celebrity fell in love with their spouse. That’s not to say that Arby isn’t a decent father, but we all know he would have never been able to give his daughter the life she has now.
The only thing I’ve heard against Matt Damon is that he exaggerates everything and gossips constantly. He also is a heavy drinker. Both Ben Affleck and George Clooney have mentioned that, and it’s obvious from his interviews too. Therefore, I wouldn’t want him as a friend, just for those reasons alone.
I’ve never heard that he’s a drinker, I heard that about Affleck though.
@Lena, who wrote: “The only thing I’ve heard against Matt Damon is that he exaggerates everything and gossips constantly. He also is a heavy drinker. Both Ben Affleck and George Clooney have mentioned that, and it’s obvious from his interviews too. Therefore, I wouldn’t want him as a friend, just for those reasons alone. ”
Funny. After ‘years’ of obsessively reading everything about and/or related to Matt Damon I could find, his ‘heavy drinking’ is the one thing I’ve never read/seen/heard. In fact, I think Matt is more of a ‘stoner’ than a drinker. Meaning I ‘can’ believe that Matty D. likes to toke a joint or two, but there would have been stories about his being a heavy drinker by now … and there haven’t been. Do I think he likes his beer? Sure, but what good Boston lad Doesn’t? Do I believe he partied HARD with his friend Ben in their youth? Hell yeah. Do I think he over-indulges in the Cup today? No. And there haven’t been any ‘rehab’ stories about Matt Damon, either (can’t say the same about Ben Affleck).
For instance, on the set of “Ocean’s Eleven” there are numerous pictures of George Clooney and Brad Pitt sharing/putting bottle to glass to lips between takes, but none of Matt Damon. “The Bourne Identity” hadn’t been released at that time (it was undergoing one of several re-edits). Don’t you think a young, still fairly unknown actor (“Good Will Hunting” wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea) would have been right in there with the big boys clinking glasses and drinking up a storm to gain favor? To be honest, though … I’m sure Matty D. and Brad Pitt bonded over a joint or two. 🙂
I’ve always had the feeling that Matt Damon isn’t the person he’s made himself appear to be to the public. Just a ridiculous feeling I get lol.
Well, that’s said, Lena. You and I can never be friends. I’m a heavy drinker (although I haven’t been around it for years), have been known to exaggerate and I obviously gossip as I’m posting here. I will mourn for what could have been. 🙁
I think Clooney should worry about his own drinking problems before accusing other of the same thing. I haven’t heard of Matty D having drunken brawls with billionaires and then running to the press to get his side if the story out. The same can’t be said of Clooney. And as for Affleck, I think he should worry about his own demons.
Know what? No. I don’t believe he’s a heavy drinker. I grew up surrounded by heavy drinkers, most of whom I still know, and while I’m not going to pretend I’m psychic about it or something, I can usually figure out who does and who does not drink too much easily. Ben Affleck: heavy drinker who tries to go cold turkey but falls off the wagon regularly and hard. George Clooney: heavy social drinker, probably not so much on his own. Leonardo diCaprio: swims in vodka and could probably drink Lindsay Lohan under the table. Matt Damon: has a glass of wine with dinner sometimes, and probably drinks a bit with his friends every couple months, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he were the designated driver either.
I’ve never heard Ben say Matt drinks particularly heavily. In fact, he always used to say that Matt was much more sensible and cautious. They used to call each other the Warrior (Matt) and the Clown (Ben) as teenagers because of their different temperaments.
He really does treat her like his own flesh and blood… which shouldn’t be a rare thing, but people like to put so many labels (“bonus mom” anyone?) on family, and Matt seems to understand that family is family, period.
I guess I’m mostly thinking about the reporters & bloggers who constantly, casually differentiate between celebrities’ kids and step-kids (or adopted and biological kids, etc.). Matt always, always corrects someone who asks about the three daughters he had with his wife. He always says, “four, actually” and as a stepdaughter myself (with one amazing step-parent and one from hell), it makes my heart swell every time.
You can see he loves those kids.He reminds me of how my dad used to hold us when we got tired and started whining! Some things just can’t be faked.. i like him.
He is hot, sexy, talented, and he and his mom are true education and union advocates. LOVE THAT- this is just the icing on the hot cake.
maybe the real dad isnt in the picture anymore
Well, yeah. I guess it’s easy to be a father when someone else does all of the work. I wonder if this guy even has a job or if Matt supports him, too? Matt seems good-hearted so I can see him supporting him financially just because he’s Alexia’s dad.
Matt Damon.