What Minnie Driver Wishes She Could Tell Her 25-Year-Old Self Following Matt Damon 'Heartbreak'

Minnie Driver has some sound advice for her younger self after suffering a public heartbreak!

On Thursday's episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, the 54-year-old actress addresses a viral moment in December when she reacted to a somber clip of her at the 1998 Oscars. At the time, Driver commented on an Instagram post that showed her looking sad as she sat in the audience while her ex-boyfriend, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck accepted the award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, which she also starred in.

Taking to the comments, Driver revealed her true feelings in the moment. "Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new gf… I was devastated," she wrote. "Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us, and for this wonderful film ! ♥️" 

During her interview with Hudson, Driver reacts to the clip, and admits that the feels so bad for that heartbroken girl. 

"First of all, I want to wrap my arms around that young woman and hug her and go, 'It's all gonna be fine, honey. Don't worry,'" she shares. "We had recently broken up. I was nominated, he was nominated, the movie was so amazing, he had a new girlfriend. I was totally heartbroken."

Driver adds, "Anyone whose been heartbroken can understand that it's like the last thing you want is everybody having a window in on that and it was so public."

The actress shares that she had never seen the clip until December, and was moved by how sad she was in the moment.

"The camera cut to my face and it was a poor, young 25-year-old girl who's about to burst into tears," she says. "And it was so raw and vulnerable."

Looking back over 25 years later, Driver reveals what she would love to tell her younger self.

"From this vantage point, 20/20 vision -- much later in my life -- I wish I could have told her, 'Honey, it's cool. You can celebrate and life's gonna be great and beautiful and hard and amazing and you're going to love again. It will be fine.'"

Noting that everyone goes through heartbreak, no matter what their status, Driver encourages people to just be kind. 

"Our heartbreak is private and if you're an actress is can be very public," she tells Hudson. "Just us all relating to each other more as humans, we have these similar experiences through different lenses. Maybe we can all treat each other a bit more kindly."

Driver and Damon met on the set of Good Will Hunting in 1997 and dated until 1998. Following their public split, Damon went on to date Wynonna Ryder, and he dated her until 2000. 

In 2022, while promoting her memoir, Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essay, Driver spoke to ET about her brief and "sweet" romance with Damon, and how the public fall out from their split added to the pain.

"I don't care who you are, that is agony and it's like a strange, surreal dream," Driver said of the tabloid fodder that surrounded their breakup. "But I know he didn't put that picture there. It's so tricky, because it's not deliberate, he couldn't have helped how famous he became and how his life was being picked over, in the same way that mine was."

Today, Driver is in a relationship with Addison O'Dea, and Damon has been married to Luciana Barroso since 2005. 

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