ABC/UniversalFor almost 20 years now, Hollywood superstar Matt Damon and TV host Jimmy Kimmel have been locked in a bitter feud, but how and when did it all start, and do they really hate one another?
Since his big break in the 1990s, there have been few bigger names in the movie industry than Matt Damon. He’s starred in some of the best, most entertaining films of all time, and he seems like a pretty nice guy, too. One man who would disagree is Jimmy Kimmel, and the feeling is mutual.
Here, we get to the bottom of this intense rivalry to discern why it all started and whether they’re really friends.
Do Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel really hate each other?
No, Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel do not really hate each other. Quite the opposite, in fact: they are now really good friends and do this whole feud thing as a bit.
ABCThe pair didn’t actually know each other all that well before all this started in 2005, but over time and with the ongoing joke bringing them closer together, they are now close acquaintances away from the cameras.
How did the feud between Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel start?
The feud began in 2005 when Jimmy Kimmel pretended to cut Matt Damon from his chat show live on air. The host announced he didn’t have time to chat with Damon, but the actor was never actually lined up to appear that night.
Explaining the situation, Kimmel said: “We had a bad show… the guests were bad, and I was feeling pretty bad about myself at the end of the show. I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me… Matt Damon was just the first name that popped into my head. I was trying to think of an A-list star, and somebody we absolutely would not bump if he was on the show.”
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ABCA year later, Damon actually was invited on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and the gag developed. Kimmel introduced his guest, but immediately cut him off and ended the show. As he did, Damon stormed off stage, swearing, and fans of the show believed it was a genuine reaction.
Timeline of the Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel feud
Since that chaotic appearance in 2006, there have been several other incidents involving Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel, all of them staged and all of them hilarious.
2007
One of the funniest came in 2007, when Damon was invited back on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Instead of showing up, he sent Kimmel’s then-girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, in his place, and a music video was played where Silverman and Damon implied that they were involved in an affair. You can catch that Emmy Award-winning video below.
2013
Damon and Kimmel then took a six-year break from the rivalry, but in 2013, Damon shocked audiences by hosting the Jimmy Kimmel show. The usual host was tied up in the background, with his mouth covered by duct tape.
2014
When the cast of The Monuments Men appeared on Kimmel’s show, there wasn’t a seat put out for Damon, so he had to sit off to the side in a small chair. When he finally had his chance to talk, a fire alarm went off, ending the interview.
2015
In 2015, the two stars appeared in a comedy sketch where they attended couples counseling in an attempt to mend their relationship. It didn’t work, as you may have guessed.
2016
Damon’s lifelong friend, Ben Affleck, got involved in the fun in 2016. As a guest on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Affleck raised eyebrows when he appeared wearing a pretty large coat. His host asked him to remove the jacket, and Damon was hiding underneath.
Then, when Kimmel was presenting the 2016 Emmys, Damon took to the stage to make fun of him for not winning the Outstanding Talk Show Series award.
2017
The actor sneaked onto the show just a year later, under the guise of NFL player Tom Brady. When he removed his helmet, it was revealed that Damon had taken Brady’s place.
In an interview for Good Morning America the same year, Kimmel revealed he hoped Damon would not receive the Oscar for his work on Manchester by the Sea, a film he produced.
Kimmel made a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Damon at the awards show. Then, when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were presenting the award for Best Original Screenplay, Damon was introduced as Affleck’s guest.
In October the same year, Damon interrupted Kimmel’s interview with the Thor Ragnarok cast (in which he had a cameo). While Kimmel attempted to speak to Taika Waititi and Mark Ruffalo in the green room, Damon kept appearing in frame, declaring, “I’m on the show.”
When it cut back to Kimmel’s interview with Chris Hemsworth, Damon “hacked” the digital display to once again interrupt the interview.
2019
The Tom Brady gag came full circle in 2019 when Kimmel hired Brady to throw a pigskin through a window at Matt Damon’s home.
2022
In 2022, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon swapped shows as an April Fool’s Day prank, and Justin Timberlake played a parody of Matt Damon.
2023
Jimmy Kimmel hosted his 20th anniversary show in January 2023, and as the show wrapped up, he apologized to Damon for not finding the time to fit him into the show. Then, it cut to Damon furiously trashing the green room, shouting, “What the actual f**k? Twenty f**king years of this sh*t!”
Later in 2023, Kimmel explained how happy he was that Damon wasn’t going to appear at the Oscars ceremony, and he even blamed Damon for the La La Land-Moonlight mix-up in 2017.
The same year, the pair exchanged verbal blows regularly during the press run for Damon’s movie, Air. When asked if he would ever make amends with Kimmel, Damon said, “No, no. He’s an asshole. Why would I ever do that? He’s a terrible human being. He’s a demonstrably bad man.”
When interviewing Ben Affleck for the same movie, Kimmel allowed Damon to make a FaceTime call during the show, but the host faked technical difficulties and paused the screen on unflattering images of Damon.
2024
In a promo for the 96th Oscars in 2024, Kimmel described Damon as an “incredibly hideous, disgusting, ugly man” when he saw his character from Oppenheimer pop up on a video.
At the end of that awards show broadcast, which Kimmel hosted, Anatomy of a Fall’s Messi the dog appeared to urinate on Damon’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
2025
In July 2025, Kimmel hosted a celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings walked out by himself before revealing Matt Damon as his partner. The two doubled down on their “feud,” exchanging insults throughout.
Still, Jennings and Damon won the $1 million for Water.org – Kimmel only begrudgingly congratulated Damon, of course.
Matt Damon stars alongside Ben Affleck in The Rip, a crime thriller releasing in January 2026, then plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which releases in July 2026, so there’s sure to be plenty more hilarity to ensue when they next meet.
