Duration: Two years
Ages: 30 and 29
Previous pairings: Damon romanced "
Rainmaker" co-star
Claire Danes and "
Good Will Hunting" co-star
Minnie Driver.
Ryder was engaged to
Johnny Depp, who she dated for four years, at the age of 20. After their breakup, she dated Soul Asylum lead singer David Pirner for almost four years.
|
| Matt Damon |
Love story: In the cutesy-tootsy hookup of the ages, they were introduced at a New Year's Eve party in 1997 by her (then) best friend
Gwyneth Paltrow, who was (at the time) dating Matt's best friend,
Ben Affleck. They kept their relationship very low profile, often arriving separately to events, until this year's Golden Globes, where they shared a very public smooch on the red carpet.
What went wrong?: The rumors were flying about
Damon's hookup with
Penélope Cruz, his co-star in "
All the Pretty Horses," which has been denied, and her reported fling with
Mark Wahlberg, which was also denied since
Ryder and
Damon were vacationing at the time of the alleged tryst.
Post-split romance: Damon's name has since been linked to Cruz and Lucy Liu (but then again, Liu's been linked to every other hunky actor on the market).
Ryder attended the MTV Movie Awards with "Saturday Night Live" cast member Jimmy Fallon, and was hit on by Chris Noth ("Sex and the City"). A brief romance with singer Beck just ended.
What they've said: Very little. For the most part, the two have acknowledged but refused to talk about their romance.
