Key Takeaways
- Matt Damon revealed in GQ that his wife, Luciana Barroso, underwent brain surgery for an aneurysm a week before the 2024 Oscars and is now “totally fine.”
- Barroso surprised Damon by joining him at an Oscars after-party on the first night she regained her energy, a gesture he called “heroic” and “really meaningful.”
- She remembered his regret over skipping the 2007 Oscars, when The Departed won Best Picture, and insisted, “This time we’re going out.”
Matt Damon says his wife Luciana Barroso, went through a frightening medical emergency just before the 2024 Oscars.
In Frazier Tharpe's GQ Men of the Year cover interview, published Thursday (Nov. 5), the 56-year-old actor said an aneurysm left Barroso needing brain surgery.
“We had this whole scary thing happen where my wife had a brain aneurysm. She's totally fine, thank God, but [she] had this brain surgery the week before the Oscars," Damon said.
Her recovery ran into an old regret. Damon missed the 2007 Oscars because he was shooting second unit for The Bourne Ultimatum, so he and Barroso watched from bed as The Departed won Best Director and then Best Picture.
He remembered turning to her and saying, "Shit, we should be there!" Then the cast and the studio started calling to ask where he was. "I totally blew it," he admitted.
Seventeen years later, Barroso hadn't forgotten, and Damon described what she did once she was back on her feet.
"But it was the first night she felt good enough to get up and had her energy back. And she surprised me and got a dress and we went out to the after-party, because she remembered that the last time it happened, I didn't do it," he said. "And she was like, 'This time we're going out.' And it was pretty fucking heroic of her to do that and really meaningful."
