Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have got each other’s back through thick and thin. On The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM on Monday, January 12th, the actor-filmmakers discussed their relationship off-screen and on, from their breakout film Good Will Hunting to their latest collaboration, The Rip (on Netflix January 16th).
Matt Damon talks about Ben Affleck
Stern asked the couple of friends about “when Ben was going through all his problems,” mentioning “divorce” and, “as he admits, he had a problem with alcohol.” Addressing Damon, he said, “Could you go to Ben and say, ‘I’m here to help you?’”
“Oh, yeah, our relationship isn’t affected by what people are saying,” Damon, 55, said.
“I was there for all of it.”
Affleck, responded with gratitude. “That means a lot to me,” he said to his longtime collaborator. “That’s sort of what a real friend is.”
The Oscar-winning pair then reflected on making a splash in Hollywood midway through their twenties.
“Your evolution gets kind of stunted at the moment you become famous because the world treats you differently,” said Damon.
“I think we were lucky in that we were 25 and 27, so we had a handful of years under our belt where we would walk into a room and not turn any heads.”
In unison, he and Affleck both added, “And nobody gave a s—.”
Affleck, who underwent a highly publicized separation from Jennifer Garner in 2015, announced that he had completed treatment for alcohol addiction a second time in 2017 around the time the two finalized their divorce. He then was married to Jennifer Lopez from 2022 to 2025.
