Angelina Jolie will soon have company in the empty next club. Once fresh-faced young men intent on conquering Hollywood together, friends and collaborators Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are now solidly middle-aged—and are facing a home life free of children, a prospect that makes them emotional, Damon says.
The friendship between Affleck and Damon extends to their respective kids, with both families vacationing together and sharing social events. Married for over 20 years to Luciana Barroso, Matt Damon’s brood includes Luciana’s daughter from a previous relationship, Alexia (now 27), as well as Isabella (20), Gia (17), and Stella (15).
Now aged 53, Ben Affleck has three children, all of whom he shares with former wife Jennifer Garner. Married from 2005 until their divorce was finalized in 2018, the two co-parent Violet, now 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14.
But time can’t be stopped, and soon both sets of parents will be empty nesters, the 55-year-old Damon admitted to People this week. “We’re at very similar stages with the kids, and it’s definitely a new phase of life,” Damon said. “It doesn’t take much to get us emotional at this point.”
“I feel like we are facing it and embracing the fact that it’s happening,” he continued. “We’ve been talking a lot about presence and about really trying to be in the moment, and because you can’t slow time down, the only way to really do it is to really be there and be in it.”