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Minnie Driver says marrying ex-fiancé Josh Brolin would’ve been ‘the biggest mistake of my life’

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Minnie Driver and Josh Brolin at the "Return to Me" Premiere in Los Angeles in 2000.
Minnie Driver said she knew her romance with ex-fiancé Josh Brolin was destined to be ill-fated.

Minnie Driver is looking back on what could’ve been — and she’s happy she went a different way.

The “Good Will Hunting” actress said she knew her romance with ex-fiancé Josh Brolin was destined to be ill-fated.

Driver, 54, met the Marvel actor, 56, on the set of the 2000 film “Slow Burn.”

Minnie Driver and Josh Brolin kissing.
Driver, 54, met the Marvel actor, 56, on the set of the 2000 film “Slow Burn.”

The pair soon fell enough, with Brolin soon popping the all-important question the following year.

But less than 6 months into their engagement, the duo called off their wedding and parted ways in October 2001.

“Minnie Driver and Josh Brolin have decided to cancel their wedding plans. Their decision is mutual and amicable,” a rep for the actress said at the time, adding that the couple never set a date.

In hindsight, never making it to the altar is something she’s happy not to have done.

Minnie Driver and Josh Brolin
But less than 6 months into their engagement, the duo called off their wedding and parted ways in October 2001.

“The one time I was engaged, it would have been, I think, the biggest mistake of my life,” she told The Sunday Times in a new interview, adding that her exes were “not the right men to be married to.”

The exes have since moved on, with Brolin tying the knot to Kathryn Boyd in 2016.

Driver, for her part, has found love with writer and director Addison O’Dea in 2019.

Josh Brolin and Kathryn Boyd arrive at the premiere of "Dune: Part Two"
Brolin has since tied the knot with Kathryn Boyd in 2016.

“But now I’m with someone who doesn’t want to get married but who is the most devoted, loving, extraordinary … everything I could have wanted in my childhood idea of a husband, he actually is,” she told the outlet of her current beau.

Elsewhere in the interview, Driver said her parents never married due to her dad’s infidelities, which in turn affected her own romantic relationships.

Minnie Driver and Addison O'Dea attend the Los Angeles Special Screening of Searchlight Pictures' "Chevalier"
Driver, for her part, has found love with writer and director Addison O’Dea in 2019.

“If I look at my history, what it did was make me want to be married so much and then choose men who were so not the right men to be married to,” she explained.

“So I would carry on longing to be married and to have that conservative version [of a relationship], find men who had no interest in that, and then if one did, run a mile.”

Prior to her failed romance with Brolin, Driver was romantically linked to Matt Damon.

Minnie Driver on the "Today" show in June 2024.
Driver said her parents never married due to her dad’s infidelities, which in turn affected her own romantic relationships.

Earlier this year, Driver revealed what she would tell her 25-year-old self when ex Matt Damon won an Oscar in 1998 shortly after their breakup.

“I wish I could’ve told her, ‘Honey, it’s cool, like, you can celebrate, and life’s gonna be great and beautiful and hard and amazing, and you’re gonna love again. It’ll be fine,’” the actress said on the “Jennifer Hudson Show.”

Driver made headlines three months ago when she admitted she was “devastated” seeing Ben Affleck and Damon –– who had already moved on and was dating Winona Ryder –– win the Oscar for best original screenplay for their joint movie, “Good Will Hunting.”

Matt Damon and Minnie Driver
Prior to her failed romance with Brolin, Driver was romantically linked to Matt Damon.

“I wanna wrap my arms around that young woman and hug her and go, ‘It’s all gonna be fine honey, don’t worry,’” Driver told Hudson.

The “Circle of Friends” actress explained that she and Damon had just “recently broken up,” and she was still “totally heartbroken” and “terrified” at the time of the annual awards show.

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