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Matt Damon shares a scary family scare that nearly derailed one of Hollywood’s biggest nights.
The actor revealed that his wife, Luciana Barroso, suffered a brain aneurysm and had surgery a week before the 2024 Oscars.
Damon said Barroso was still recovering when she made a surprise decision that deeply moved him.
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Matt Damon said his wife, Luciana Barroso, underwent brain surgery just days before the 2024 Oscars, calling her decision to attend an after-party “heroic.” (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“We had a whole scary story where my wife had a brain aneurysm,” Damon told GQ in a cover interview published Thursday.
“She’s totally fine, thank God, but (she) had brain surgery the week before the Oscars. But this was the first night she felt well enough to get up and got her energy back.”
Despite having had surgery a week earlier, Barroso dressed up and accompanied her husband to an Oscars after-party, determined not to let another major Hollywood moment slip by.
“And she surprised me and bought me a dress, and we went to the afterparty because she remembered the last time that happened, I didn’t do it,” Damon recalled.
Matt Damon appears on the cover of GQ magazine’s 2026 Men of the Year issue. (Richard Burbridge/GQ)
“She told me, ‘This time we’re going out,'” Damon continued. “And that was pretty heroic of him to do that and really meaningful.”
This emotional reflection comes after Damon remembered another Oscars party he wished was gone nearly two decades earlier.
In 2007, Martin Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for “The Departed,” the crime drama starring Damon. But the actor wasn’t near Hollywood that night.
Damon was filming second unit scenes for “The Bourne Ultimatum” in Miami, where he was living at the time with Barroso and their young daughter.
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Matt Damon has admitted he regrets missing the 2007 Oscars, when Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’ won best picture. (Richard Burbridge/GQ)
The couple watched the ceremony from bed, and Damon revealed that he was so engrossed in Scorsese’s long-awaited win that he never considered the possibility that the film could also win Best Picture.
“And I realized at that moment that I hadn’t even thought that this could happen,” he said. “And I turned to Lucy and I was like, ‘S—, we should be here!'”
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“The Departed” won best picture, and Damon said he was inundated with calls from cast members and studio executives wondering why he missed the celebration, he told GQ.
“I completely screwed up,” he admitted.
Matt Damon opened up about his life with his wife Luciana Barroso, sharing memorable moments in Hollywood, family stories and a few surprises along the way. (Richard Burbridge/GQ)
Years later, Damon got another chance at an awards season triumph with Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film, “Oppenheimer,” which won Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards.
The actor has long credited his family with helping him adjust to Hollywood’s demanding schedule, saying he and Barroso traditionally maintained a two-week limit on the time he spent at work.
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Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso, married in 2005, share three daughters. The actor credited his family for helping him balance fatherhood and Hollywood. (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
This arrangement was tested during the filming of Christopher Nolan’s 2026 blockbuster, “The Odyssey,” when Damon spent three and a half weeks away during the first part of production.
“It was a sacrifice for them, and they were great,” he said of his family’s support.
Damon and Barroso married in a private ceremony in 2005 and have three daughters together: Isabella, 20, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15. Barroso also has a daughter, Alexia, 27, whom Damon helped raise, from a previous relationship.
Damon also praised his longtime friend Ben Affleck for turning down projects that would have taken him away from his children, noting how their priorities have changed since they found success together on “Good Will Hunting.”
“I have no right to expect something like this to happen again,” Damon said of another career-defining opportunity.
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But he won’t be giving up on their creative partnership anytime soon.
“I just want to do good things and keep working with Ben,” he told GQ, reflecting on how the two are still chasing the dreams they shared as boys.
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