Unexpected detail behind Matt Damon’s Derby Day appearance

KIIS radio host Lauren Phillips has lifted the lid on Hollywood star Matt Damon’s very unexpected – and high-profile – cameo at Derby Day.

It usually costs big bucks to lure Hollywood A-listers to the Melbourne Cup Carnival – but Matt Damon’s appearance was an absolute bargain.

KIIS FM radio host Lauren Phillips, who is close friends with the Good Will Hunting actor, revealed on her Jase & Lauren radio show this morning that he’d turned up on Derby Day for free, and that his marquee host, Lexus, didn’t even know about it until the day before.

“We talked about it for a long time. We’d been saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got to get to Melbourne, got to come to the races one year, it’s so much fun’ – and so this was the year,” Phillips told her co-host, Jason Hawkins, before joking: “I’m just nervous about next year. If [Lexus] invite us, who they’re going to hope we’re bringing.”

Damon was easily the most high-profile guest at Derby Day this year. Picture: Supplied/Magner Media/Lexus

The Hollywood star turned up with friends, including Aussie radio host Lauren Phillips. Picture: Magner Media

As well as Phillips and her fiance, Paul O’Brien, Damon was accompanied by his wife, Luciana Barroso, and other high-profile friends including Elsa Pataky and Daniel MacPherson.

“They just came out. We had a bunch of friends. They love the horses and they love Melbourne, so I was excited,” Phillips said on her radio show.

“We’ve spent a lot of time up in Byron and Brisbane and in New York with them, but I was excited to show them our hometown for once.

“We did the races on Saturday – I took them to our local Chinese restaurant for Yum Cha on Sunday though.”

The group of friends – including Phillips, Pataky, Damon and MacPherson – were all smiles as they posed in the marquee. Picture: Magner Media

Lexus only discovered he was coming the day before. Picture: Magner Media

Damon and Barroso have spent plenty of time hanging out in Australia in recent years after striking up a close friendship with Byron Bay’s most famous residents, Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky.

The foursome has since been regularly spotted in the coastal New South Wales town – with Damon even making a very unexpected cameo at the Royal Queensland Show earlier this year.

He opened up about his friendship with the Hemsworth family on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in 2019, explaining that he loved coming Down Under because it was easier for him to blend in.

“I kind of hide pretty well,” he admitted.

Pataky has also previously gushed over the friendship, describing Damon and Barroso as “amazing people.”

“We have three kids, they have four kids, so we ended up making the same plans because everything we do we do with the kids, so it’s easier to do things with people that understand you,” she told People magazine.

Originally published as Unexpected detail behind Matt Damon’s Derby Day appearance