Matt Damon is surely the happiest dad after visiting the Happiest Place on Earth with his family.
Damon, 55, was joined by wife Luciana Barroso and their four daughters at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, on Thursday, August 20. (Damon and Barroso, 50, share Isabella, 20, Gia, 18, and Stella, 15, while the Odyssey star is a stepfather to Barroso’s daughter Alexia, 27, from a previous marriage.)
The family were all smiles as they posed in front of the giant Mickey Mouse-shaped pumpkin on Main Street, each wearing a black “Birthday Crew” T-shirt in honor of Gia’s milestone celebration. Gia, instead, rocked a blouse emblazoned with the words, “Birthday Girl.”
Despite many years of Hollywood success, Damon still makes sure that his brood comes first.
“I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now. It’s hard for me to do that. I think maybe that has to do with my own nature,” Damon told GQ in a profile published in June. “It also has to do with this career where you’re always trying to figure out what’s ahead because it’s such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one. Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I’d like.”
As a father, Damon has learned a thing or two about raising daughters.
“I wouldn’t deign to give anybody advice other than I just try to listen and be helpful. I mean, ultimately, it’s about building self-esteem,” he quipped during a 2024 appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy. “You know, 99 percent of the decisions they make, you’re not gonna be there, right?”
In fact, Damon has tried not to be completely overprotective when his now-adult daughters began dating.
“I’m fine. I’m cool with that,” he said when asked about whether he grills his kids’ potential partners. “That’s like an old trope that I think people, you know, like to play up. You know, dads like to joke about it amongst each other, I think, sometimes, but no.”
Damon further gushed that Alexia has an “incredible boyfriend” of whom he and Barroso wholeheartedly approve.
“Lucy and I love [him],” the actor added. “We adore the guy, and to see that she’s making those kinds of choices, really, it’s as good as it gets.”
Damon and Barroso have been married since 2005 after two years of dating. At the time, Barroso was a single mom to 4-year-old Alexia.
“I jumped into the deep end. I mean, Alexia was already 4 [when we met]. I was an extra dad,” Damon told Parade in 2011. “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.”
