Minnie Driver shares why she looked so downcast watching ex Matt Damon accept the Oscar for their film Good Will Hunting after their split: ‘I was devastated’
- Minnie Driver has recalled just how ‘devastated’ she was as ex Matt Damon accepted an Academy Award for their film Good Will Hunting back in 1998
- Video of Damon and Ben Affleck accepting the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay was posted on the Instagram account Movie Shmood and contained a glimpse of Minnie somberly watching her co-stars as they gave her a shout-out in their speech
- Driver did not say who the new girlfriend was, however the actor did begin dating actress Winona Ryder shortly after their break-up
Minnie Driver has recalled just how ‘devastated’ she was as her ex Matt Damon accepted an Academy Award for their film Good Will Hunting back in 1998.
Video of Damon and Ben Affleck accepting the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay was posted on the Instagram account Movie Shmood and contained a glimpse of Minnie somberly watching her co-stars as Affleck gave her a shout-out in their speech.
Driver and Damon started a relationship after starring as love interests in the film, but went their separate ways following their year-long whirlwind romance in 1998. By the time the Oscars rolled around, Damon had already moved on with a new girlfriend who attended the ceremony with him.
Driver did not say who the new girlfriend was, however the actor did begin dating actress Winona Ryder shortly after their break-up. It is unclear if Ryder was the girlfriend, though she did attend the 1998 Oscars.
After a fan commented that Driver looked ‘so sad’ at the ceremony, the actress leaped into the comments section to explain her appearance.
‘Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new gf… I was devastated. Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us, and for this wonderful film !’ Driver, 53, commented.
Minnie Driver has revealed why she looked so downcast watching ex Matt Damon accept an Academy Award for Good Will Hunting back in 1997
Video of Damon and Ben Affleck accepting the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay was posted on the Instagram account Movie Shmood, and contained a brief glimpse of Minnie somberly watching her co-stars as they gave her a shout-out in their speech
Driver has been dating Addison O’Dea since 2019. As for Damon, 53, he has been married to Luciana Bozán since 2005.
The world learned Damon and Driver had called it quits after the actor revealed their split on The Oprah Winfrey Show, saying: ‘Well, I’m single. I was with Minnie for a while, 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.’
Driver hit back in a subsequent interview with 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.’
‘Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously,’ she said.
Last year the actress appeared on ITV’s This Morning where she told Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes of her public split from Matt: ‘It was dramatically reported on but I wouldn’t change a second of it.’
Earlier in the day, Minnie spoke to Chris Evans on the Sky Breakfast Show, where she opened up about her time in Hollywood and their romance during that time.
She said: ‘Matt Damon was just this lovely, talented, great person who was also very young and got famous very fast. And people don’t always behave well in situations when you’re under pressure.
Minnie and co-star Robin Williams watching Affleck and Damon accept the award
Driver and Damon started a relationship after starring as love interests in the film, but went their separate ways following their year-long whirlwind romance in 1998
Driver did not say who the new girlfriend was, however the actor did begin dating actress Winona Ryder shortly after their break-up; Damon and Ryder pictured at the Golden Globes in 2000
The couple at the premiere of the Damon-led film The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999
Ryder pictured attending the 1998 Academy Awards
Driver recalled the devastation she was feeling at the time of the ceremony
She also posted a separate comment remarking on her expression with several laughing-crying emojis
‘It was a very sweet romance that we had. And I really do look back on it with such fondness no matter how it ended up. It was just sort of dramatic and tabloid-y and was really unbelievable.’
She recalled what it was like to find out he dating other people through the press: ‘At the time, it was weird, walking down the aisle in the supermarket with magazine covers in stereo of him making out with his new girlfriend after we’d broken up.
‘We really did fancy each other, we really were good friends at that point. And they let us improvise a lot, there was a lot of real, the way in which we spoke to each other.’
The actress cemented her rise to fame with the 1997’s Good Will Hunting which earned her an Academy Award nomination.
Affleck and Damon victorious at the 1998 Academy Awards
Damon and Driver pictured in their critically-acclaimed film Good Will Hunting
Minnie also addressed the romance while promoting her memoir Managing Expectations last year on TODAY.
The actress wrote she was advised by her mother to love Damon with ‘loose hands’ – but Driver insisted her parents were big fans of the actor.
‘They loved Matt,’ Minnie said on the show. ‘It was really being with an actor who was ascending at a rate of knots just like I was, and it’s super combustible, like you know, teacher Phil Hook would say.
‘That was just a recipe for not necessarily for disaster but combustibility and everybody’s moving at a rate of knots. They wanted me to just calm down and not be in love as well as be rocketing to fame.’
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