Matt Damon: Wife had brain surgery before 2024 Oscars
The actor said Luciana Damon attended an after-party for Oppenheimer one week after her operation.
By Eric Collins ·
Luciana Damon attended an Academy Awards after-party in March 2024, one week after undergoing brain surgery.
Matt Damon disclosed the timeline in an interview with GQ published on Thursday. The 56-year-old actor stated that his wife suffered a brain aneurysm and required surgery shortly before the 96th Academy Awards ceremony.
“We had this whole scary thing happen where my wife had a brain aneurysm,” Damon told the magazine. “She’s totally fine, thank God, but [she] had this brain surgery the week before the Oscars.”
Damon noted that the event in question was the first night his wife felt well enough to leave her bed and regain her energy. He said she surprised him by putting on a dress and joining him at the celebration for the film Oppenheimer, which had just won seven awards, including best picture.
The actor explained that his wife made the trip to honor a promise. He recalled that during the 2007 Oscars, he watched his film The Departed win four awards from home in Miami. He was in Miami filming second unit for The Bourne Ultimatum and caring for an infant at the time.
“I totally blew it,” Damon said of that earlier year. He described jumping up and down in his bedroom after Martin Scorsese won the best director award, only to realize he missed the chance to celebrate in person. “I turned to Lucy and I was like, ‘S***, we should be there!'”
In 2024, Luciana Damon insisted they go out. “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,” Damon recalled. “And she was like, ‘This time we’re going out.'” He called her decision to attend “pretty f****** heroic” and “really meaningful.”
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines a brain aneurysm as a bulge in a weakened artery wall in the brain. While some aneurysms show no symptoms, others can rupture and cause bleeding, leading to stroke or death. Damon did not specify if his wife’s aneurysm ruptured or provide further medical details.
