Minnie Driver has some THOUGHTS on the shocking way Matt Damon broke up with her back in the ‘90s!
The actress, who met and fell in love with Damon on the set of 1997’s Good Will Hunting, opened up about their fast and furious romance in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight. Recalling the end of their 1-year romance, after Matt appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and declared he was single, Minnie shared on Wednesday:
“That was just a sweet romance that was just a sweet love affair in the center of all of that stuff, but had a combustible ending, which then became the focus.”
Yeesh! Combustible does not sound like the way you want things to go down!
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Interestingly, it sounds like Matt has Minnie’s parents to thank for the fact that she hasn’t held a grudge about the heartbreaking split, she added:
“Another thing that my parents taught me, was there just isn’t any time to sit around feeling resentful or angry, just have to get on and everybody had a beautiful life.”
The Cinderella star’s family “loved Matt” but they “could see that this young man was rocketing really fast,” just as she was, she explained:
“They were like, ‘This may well end badly for reasons that are to do with all these things coming together in a perfect storm.’”
And it did result in a storm of tabloid attention, especially after the Jason Bourne lead went on Oprah’s talk show in 1998 and declared:
“I was with Minnie for awhile, but we’re not really romantically involved anymore, we’re just really good friends. I love her dearly. I care about her a lot. We care about each other a lot. It wasn’t meant to be and if it wasn’t meant to be then it’s not meant to be.”
But just months later, the Brit slammed him for not giving her a heads up about his feelings, telling the Los Angeles Times:
“It’s unfortunate that Matt went on Oprah; it seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate.”
She also added another dig, suggesting he was using their relationship as a PR move for more attention:
“Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously.”
Yikes. The drama continued a year later, in November 1999, when Matt went back on Oprah’s show and denied not breaking up with his former co-star in person before making the announcement. He learned his lesson, though, because when asked if he was seeing anyone new, he quipped:
“I’ve pretty much learned that there can be no advantage gained by putting that in the public consciousness.”
That time remains but a “surreal dream” to her now. Remarkably, she sounds somewhat understanding of it all, too, realizing that the screenwriter “couldn’t have helped how famous he became and how his life was being picked over.” If that wasn’t all intense enough for you, it turns out the exes didn’t see each other again until LAST YEAR!! Wow!
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Minnie really iced him out for over 20 years! While appearing on the Keep It! podcast in September, she revealed that their families bumped into each other during a beach day, she reflected:
“I did see Matt Damon on the beach and I had not had a conversation with him, seriously, since we made the film.”
Somehow it wasn’t the most awkward thing in the world either, she continued:
“That was last summer and it was actually very nice to see him, and his kids, and his wife and it all felt quite middle-aged actually, which was reassuring.”
Despite the drama of their past, they were able to just exchange a quick hello without any explosions, she noted:
“I feel like so much of the ‘folly of youth’ went on with our initial relationship, like it was amazing and tabloidy. So that was nice to just have sort of a middle-aged conversation about the weather and stuff.”
Matt has since moved on with his wife Luciana Barroso. They tied the know in 2005 and have three daughters: Isabella, 16, Gia, 13, and Stella, 11. Luciana is also mom to Alexia, 23, whom she shares with her ex-husband. Minnie has been dating filmmaker Addison O’Dea since 2019. She also shared son Henry, 13, with ex Timothy J. Lea. So, things turned out the way they were meant to, as Damon would say, but it sure was a rollercoaster!
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
