Who is Matt Damon’s ex girlfriend Minnie Driver? Exploring her life, career and relationship timeline with the Oppenheimer star

Minnie Driver and Matt Damon shared sizzling chemistry in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. The film was a huge success commercially and critically as well and even went on to bag an Oscar for best screenplay which was also written by Matt Damon along with his friend Ben Affleck.

Despite such immense success there was one member of the cast who was probably not as enthused about the win, not because of any animosity but just for the fact that she was heartbroken. 

Why was Minnie Driver devastated during Matt Damon’s Oscar win

Minnie Driver is a British-American actress who wowed audiences with her various performances in the late 90s and early 2000s. The actress who has experience of working in both British productions as well as American productions, made a splash with her first film Circle Of Friends in 1995. The actress continued her good work with roles in the James Bond film, Goldeneye and the action comedy film Grosse Pointe Blank.

Though it was the 1997 Gus Van Sant film, Good Will Hunting where she found immense success. The Oscar winning drama which starred Matt Damon as a genius who is seeking therapy from Robin Williams character became a breakout hit, earning praises and accolades from all corners.

The film, which was also written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, earned praise for its sensitive portrayal of mental health issues and childhood trauma as well as Minnie Driver and Matt Damon’s insane chemistry. One of the reasons the lead pairing translated so well onto the film was because of the fact that at the time of the shooting, the pair were actually dating.

The relationship between the lead pair was good for the film, and even great for the couple as well, but it eventually led to heartbreak for Minnie Driver. As their film was winning award after award during that Oscar season, the romance between Damon and Driver seemed to fizzle out slowly. The couple were gaining rapid popularity as the film was picking awards and it seemed to wear down on them eventually.

Ultimately, The Jason Bourne star announced that he is single on the Oprah Winfrey show which was also the first time that Minnie was hearing about her breakup with the star.

“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,” Driver had told the Los Angeles Times in July 1997. “Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously.”

The once sizzling romance had given way to a bitter end in a very public way.

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What is Minnie Driver’s take on her doomed relationship to Matt Damon now?

Minnie Driver has been recently opening up about that time in her life when she was facing all the drama surrounding her doomed romance with Matt Damon. In a recent viral Instagram video, where the clip from that 1998 Oscars was shown, in which Damon and Affleck were seen celebrating their win, a glimpse of Driver showed her looking a little sad.

As the viewers commented the same on that video, the Goldeneye actress came in to clarify her reaction.

“Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new gf… I was devastated,” she wrote in the comments of the video. “Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us, and for this wonderful film!”

She also detailed about the incident in her memoir Managing Expectations which was released earlier this year. Minnie Driver is now married to American filmmaker and writer Addison O’Dea and Matt Damon is married to Luciana Barroso.

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