After backlash grew over Matt Damon bizarrely bragging in a Sunday Times interview that he had retired the “f-slur” months ago after a written treatise from his daughter, the actor is now saying he’s never used the word in his “personal life.” In a statement to Variety, Damon talks about a discussion he had with his daughter that he mentioned in the Times interview. Damon says he told his daughter how he grew up hearing the word “f*g” used casually and how it was even featured in one of his movies in 2003. In response, Damon says his daughter explained how harmful the word is to the LGBTQ+ community, regardless of how normalized it was. “I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind,” Damon said, adding that he can understand why the Times interview led people to assume otherwise. “To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”