A Look At Matt Damon's Relationship With His Stepdaughter Alexia Barroso

As soon as Matt Damon married Luciana Barroso in December 2005, he became a parent. When the Argentine bartender met the "Good Will Hunting" Oscar winner in 2003, she was a single mother to Alexia. "He invited me to go out with his friends. But I was like: 'I can't, I have a four-year-old daughter, I'm not going anywhere,'" Barroso told Vogue Australia in 2018. Instead of being put off, Damos was drawn to her dedication to her child. "That was one of the things he loved, that I had a daughter. He said: 'I love that you're a mum and that's your priority,'" Barroso detailed.

Damon and Barroso went on to have three daughters of their own — Isabella, Gia, and Stella, born in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Despite his long list of accolades, Damon has always put his family first. "We have a two-week rule in our family that we're not apart for more than two weeks," he said on CBS Sunday Morning in 2021. He only time he violated the rule was to shoot the 2021 film "Stillwater," which was mainly filmed in France. That was just an exception, though. "It's firmly reestablished," he laughed. 

While Damon hadn't envisioned becoming a girl dad, he's loved every second of it. "I never expected to be surrounded by girls, but it's great. ...You never know which way life's going to take you," Damon told Today. And that first second happened when he met Alexia and welcomed her into his life. 

Matt Damon didn't expect to have to assume a parental role before he even got married. But he went for it anyway. "I jumped into the deep end with Lucy," he told Parade in 2011. "I mean, Alexia was already 4. I was an extra dad." Damon never second-guessed the relationship with Luciana Barroso because of Alexia. "Some guys might have been different, they might think it's complicated, but for him it wasn't," she told Vogue Australia.

For Damon, it was simple because there were no gray zones. "There was never a choice. It was just the way it was, and I was happy for that," Damon told Hello! Canada in 2010. And Damon fell in love with Alexia right away. "The only way I can describe it — it sounds stupid, but — at the end of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas,' you know how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full; it's just full all the time."

Whenever he talks about Alexia, he refers to her as his own. He even has her name tattooed on his arm, along with his other daughters' and wife's. Damon has always been the one behind the milestone lessons. He is, for example, the one who taught Alexia how to drive. "My oldest daughter just got her license yesterday," he told USA Today in 2015. "She would drive last year just to school every morning. We'd get in the car and drive."

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw loved ones separated for months on end. And Matt Damon's A-list celebrity didn't help him avoid that situation. In May 2020, Damon was temporarily living near Dublin while filming Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel." Because he doesn't stay away from his family for more than a couple of weeks, Damon took his family with him. Well, most of his family. "Our oldest daughter is in college," he said on SPIN 1038 in May 2020, explaining why Alexia stayed back in New York.

Damon also revealed Alexia got sick with COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic, when everything was new and scary. Luckily, she and her roommates all recovered with no complications. Damon was looking forward to seeing Alexia soon since classes had been suspended. "We'll reunite with her at the end of the month," he told the hosts. Damon didn't share where Alexia was studying, but he most likely had a hand in helping her choose. 

In 2017, Damon was spotted with Alexia touring the campus of American University in Washington, D.C. According to LinkedIn, Alexia ultimately opted for The New School, where she is pursuing a career in the entertainment industry — but behind the scenes as a photographer, videographer, and production assistant. She had indeed previously shown interest in her stepdad's line of work. In 2011, Alexia appeared in Damon's "We Bought a Zoo" as a staff member of the zoo.