Matt Damon opens up about being there for Ben Affleck during his toughest years

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are two of the biggest names in Hollywood and have one of the strongest platonic relationships. Friends since they were kids, the duo found a love for acting and defied all odds by finding success with Good Will Hunting and becoming major celebrities. While theyve both celebrated highs, there’ve also been lows, like Affleck’s headline-making divorces and struggles with addiction. 

The longtime friends and collaborators have a new film coming out, The Rip, on Netflix, and have been doing press. They stopped by The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM, where they opened up about their friendship, during the good times and bad. 

Affleck’s personal life has unfolded very publicly over the years, especially when it comes to marriage and sobriety. He married Jennifer Garner in 2005; they separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018, during a period when Affleck was open about struggling with alcohol and entering rehab multiple times. 

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Then came Bennifer 2.0. After rekindling a romance with Jennifer Lopez, the two married in 2022, but their relationship ultimately ended in divorce in 2024.

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Stern asked Damon if he was able to go to Affleck and say, “‘I’m here to help you?’” when he was “going through all his problems,” like “divorce” and “as he admits, he had a problem with alcohol.” 

“Oh, yeah, our relationship isn’t affected by what people are saying,” Damon said. “I was there for all of it.” The Air director responded to Damon, “That means a lot to me.” “That’s sort of what a real friend is.” 

Rising to fame at the same time also allowed them to check each other and stay grounded. “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.” 

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Affleck credited those years to them being as “sane” as they are. “To what degree, you may be the judge!” he quipped. “Getting famous and successful kind of together, [we had] somebody to turn to and go, ‘is this f***ing nuts, or what?’ Or to say ‘what are you doing, man?'”

Shared bank account days 

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Damon and Affleck were introduced by their mom and grew up in Boston, graduating from the same high school. Their friendship has a lot of lure.  The former roommates even shared a bank account in the 80s. “It was unusual, but we needed the money for auditions,” Damon said on The Bill Simmons Podcast in 2023.

As long as one of them was finding success, Damon said they knew the power wasn’t going to get shut off. “I remember after doing Geronimo, I was like, f—, I probably had like 35 grand in the bank. I was like [to Affleck], ‘We’re good! We’re good for a year!’ Damon explained. 

“Matt and I always felt like we were in it together. Like, ‘Hey, I want to get the part, but I want you to get the part [too],” Affleck said in the same interview.