When Ben Affleck was at his lowest point, Matt Damon was by his side: 'I was there for all of it'

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have one of the most enduring relationships in Hollywood.

While romantic relationships come and go – including Affleck's two marriages to Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez– the bond of these childhood friends has stood the test of time.

Damon has been a constant presence in Affleck's life since well before they became two of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Now, as they celebrate the release of their new project, The Rip, let's take a look at their friendship.

A childhood bond

Affleck and Damon met as children while growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Despite Damon being two years older, the two bonded over their difficult childhoods and shared interest in acting.

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Damon's parents divorced when he was two and his mother took him and his older brother to live in a share house. Meanwhile Affleck, whose father was an alcoholic, began acting professionally at seven.

Affleck told Parade that after changing schools at eight, he found himself with no friends, so started hanging out with Damon, who lived two blocks away.

"Matt gave acting a framework, an integration into the social hierarchy at school," he said.

"Before Matt, I was by myself. Acting was a solo activity where I'd just go off and do something, act in a little TV show or something, and no one understood it.

"None of the other kids knew what it was I did, how it worked, or anything.

"All of a sudden I had this friend, Matt, and he gets it and wants to do it and thinks it's interesting and wants to talk about it."

While students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, they appeared in high school plays, although Damon has often said the best parts went to Affleck.

By the time Affleck was 14 and Damon was 16, the two would fly or take the train to New York City for auditions.

After high school, Damon went off to study at Harvard University. Two years later, it was Affleck's turn to graduate and he in turn went off to university in Vermont.

From college to Hollywood

It was during his time at Harvard that Damon wrote a story for one of his classes, which was the early screenplay of the film Good Will Hunting.

He asked Affleck to perform the scenes with him in front of the class.

Damon later moved in with Affleck, who had relocated to LA, and they began working on what would be an Academy Award winning screenplay, which they completed when they were 22 and 20 respectively.

By the time Good Will Hunting was made, the two had enough acting credits to win starring roles in the film, which went on to become a huge success.

Few will forget the moment the two friends went on stage in 1998 to receive their Oscars for best original screenplay. Affleck was just 25 and Damon was 27.

Professional pals

Since then, the two have continued to work together, even forming their own production companies.

In 2022, they formed Artists Equity. Its first film was 2023's Air, about the 1984 shoe deal between Nike and Michael Jordan, which they co-starred in.

Two years earlier, they collaborated on The Last Duel, and are about to be seen together in their new film The Rip, which premieres on Netflix on January 16.

It will again see them act opposite each other.

And they are not about to stop working together, with Damon telling GQ in 2025 he vowed to keep collaborating with his best friend after watching the Peter Jackson's 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back.

The final title card of the film said the band never worked together again, something Damon said brought him to tears as his thoughts turned to Affleck.

"Who cares if we oversaturate the marketplace with movies we're both in?" Damon said.

"We're crazy if we don't take advantage of the fact that we are both still here and able to do this."

'Most significant partnerships'

During a 2023 interview on Sunday Today, Damon called Affleck one of the "three most significant partnerships in my life".

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In 2024, the two shared a touching moment together when Affleck snuck up to surprise Damon as he was sitting at a table with wife Luciana Barroso at the Golden Globe Awards.

Later that year, Damon admitted he 'can't imagine' what it was like for Affleck to live under such intense spotlight.

"I've been really lucky in that way… I can't imagine living under that kind of scrutiny," he said on the Radio Times Podcast.

Friends for life

This week, during a joint appearance on The Howard Stern Show, they reflected on the importance of having a friend by their side when they first found stardom in the '90s.

"Your evolution gets kind of stunted at the moment you become famous because the world treats you differently," Damon said.

"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."

Affleck said going through it together definitely helped.

"That's kind of why we're as sane as we are – to what degree, you may be the judge!" Affleck joked.

"But getting famous and successful kind of together, [we had] somebody to turn to and go, 'Is this f---ing nuts, or what?'"

Shoulder to cry on

When news broke in April 2024 that Affleck had separated from J Lo after less than two years of marriage, Damon helped pick up the pieces.

During their interview with Stern, the host asked Damon if he was there for his friend, who was seated beside him, during his highly-publicised marriage breakdowns and battle with the bottle, which resulted in at least two stints in rehab.

"Oh, yeah, our relationship isn't affected by what people are saying," Damon said, "I was there for all of it."

A clearly emotional Affleck then responded, "That means a lot to me. That's sort of what a real friend is".

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