Everything Matt Damon has said about parenting his four daughters

Matt Damon is a loving father to four daughters he shares with his wife Luciana Barroso.

The 54-year-old became a father for the first time after he met Luciana in 2003 while he was filming Stuck on You in Miami Beach and she was working as a bartender.

Matt had a "very different" start to fatherhood as Luciana was already mom to four-year-old daughter Alexia – whom she shares with her ex-husband Arbello Barroso – when they met.

Journey to fatherhood

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"I jumped into the deep end with Lucy. I mean, Alexia was already 4. I was an extra dad," he told Parade in 2011 of becoming a stepfather to Alexia, now 26.

He added: "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."

Speaking of his path to fatherhood, Matt said: "It was very different, it's true. But I can't imagine my life having not gone down that road. I can't imagine what my life would be now. I don't want to imagine it." 

Following Matt and Luciana's 2005 wedding, they went on to welcome daughters Isabella, 18, Gia, 16, and Stella, 13.

"I knew I was going to love being a father and a husband. People who were already parents would tell me, 'It's great!' 'It's wonderful!' But I don't think you can really appreciate it until you experience it for yourself. It's really quite something," he told The Guardian in March 2012.

Girl dad

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Matt never thought he would be a father to all girls, but he said he has learned so much being a girl dad.

"I never expected to be surrounded by girls, but it's great… You never know which way life's going to take you," he previously said on Today. 

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"I'm learning so much, not the least of which is how much smarter girls are. I operated under the assumption that us guys had a chance, but I realized when I was completely wrapped around my [toddler's] finger, and she knew it. 

"If they can do that to us at two years old when they're fully grown, we really don't stand a chance."

Parenting style

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Matt and Luciana have made a conscious effort to raise their daughters to care about the world.

"The way you have to parent them is to show them the world. Explaining the world can only go so far," the actor said in 2008 of involving his daughters in his charity work. 

"You can read about devastation every morning – it's on the front page of the newspaper – but when you actually go there and see it, you realize this isn't something you can turn the page on."

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During a press tour for Matt's 2024 film The Instigators, Matt was asked for his "best advice" when raising daughters. "I wouldn't dare to give anybody advice other than I just try to listen and be helpful. I mean, ultimately, it's about building self-esteem," he stated.

He also revealed that he has no problem with his daughters dating when he was asked if he "turns all Boston" when they bring boyfriends home.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm cool with that," he said. "That’s like an old trope that I think people, you know, like to play up. Dads like to joke about it amongst each other I think sometimes, but no."

Tattoo tribute

In 2019, Matt had all four of his daughters' names tattooed on his upper right arm next to his "Lucy" tattoo, which is in honor of his wife and was one of his first pieces of body art he had done in 2013.

"On a whim, my wife said, 'We're going to get tattoos today,' so I got a tattoo of her name," Matt told Access Hollywood. "And it always felt alone on my arm, and I've always wanted to put the kids on there."