Matt Damon reveals his daughter had COVID-19

The Contagion star says his eldest child contracted the coronavirus during her spring semester in NYC

Matt Damon reveals his daughter had COVID-19 1

One of Matt Damon’s daughters had contracted the coronavirus.

In a recent interview with Dublin radio show Graham & Nathan on SPIN 1038, Damon revealed that his eldest daughter, Alexia Barroso, had COVID-19 at the early stage of the pandemic, but “got through it fine.”

Alexia was in the middle of her spring semester in New York City when stay-at-home orders went into effect, while Damon ― along with his wife Luciana Barroso and their three younger daughters ― has been staying in Dalkey, Ireland since early March to film Ridley Scott’s new movie The Last Duel.

“She had COVID really early on, along with her roommates,” Damon said of Alexia, before sharing what their next plan is as a family. “We’re going to go back to Los Angeles and she’s [Alexia] going to come out, so we’ll all be together and figure out what the heck we’re going to do. It’s such an odd limbo that we’re all in.”

Though literally ocean’s apart, Damon said that “everybody’s okay.” The actor, however, couldn’t help but worry about the welfare of his mother and mother-in-law. “Obviously for Luci’s mom and my mom, you know, it’s scary for that generation, so everyone’s kind of — I think we’ve all got the message now,” he said. “Everybody’s doing the isolation and social distancing and hand-washing and kind of everything we can to mitigate this. But it’s frightening, certainly for our parents.”

At the latter part of the interview, the radio hosts brought up the eerie connection between the ongoing pandemic and Damon’s 2011 film Contagion, which movie buffs have been re-watching in the last couple of months because of its close similarities to the current state of the world. When asked about Contagion’s prominence in public conversation almost a decade later after its release, Damon said that the very presence of the Scott Z. Burns-written movie is proof that pandemics like the world is facing right now could have been predicted.

While it’s not yet clear when filming on The Last Duel will resume, Damon said that they’re going back to work once “the world rights itself.” “I’ve got eight weeks of shooting to look forward to, hopefully, sooner rather than later,” he added. “We really want to get on with it.”

Set in 14th century France, The Last Duel tells the story of best friends Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) who are ordered to fight to the death after Carrouges accuses Le Gris of raping his wife. The movie, which also stars Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck, is currently scheduled to open in theaters on December 25th.

Watch Damon’s full interview with Graham & Nathan on SPIN 1038 in the video below:

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