George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, are a power couple, doing amazing philanthropic work outside their respective careers. While they are obviously extremely in love with each other, the kind of love they have for their children is insurmountable.
In June 2017, George and Amal’s lives changed forever after they welcomed their twins, Ella and Alexander. But George admitted that he and Amal never planned on having kids, as he revealed it was only after they got married that they decided to have children.
“We didn’t plan on it,” the “Ocean’s Eleven” star told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview at their home in Lake Como in Italy.
“We never talked about it until after we were married, which is funny. There was an assumption that we didn’t want them. And then, after the wedding, Amal and I were talking and we just felt we’d gotten very lucky, both of us, and we should share whatever good luck we’ve got. It would seem self-centered to just have that belong to us,” he added.
In the same interview, Amal shared what surprised her most about George in the time they’d been together. “What a great father he is,” Amal said.
George also counts himself lucky for joining the parenthood club, even if it did come later in life for him.
“All I know is that I am at last experiencing what most people in the world get to experience, which is the incredible amount of love you gain when you have two children you are responsible for,” he said.
For George, that love also comes with a certain degree of protectiveness, and the dad has set boundaries with the media on what he deems appropriate when it comes to his family, particularly his kids.
Since George’s marriage to Amal in 2014, the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” star has been vocal about the unwelcomed media attention surrounding his family. In his days as a bachelor, George had tolerated the intrusiveness of the press, but this came to a halt as soon as he traded “I do’s” and became a father.
Prior to his wedding, George felt compelled to respond to what he called “a completely fabricated story” published by Daily Mail concerning Amal’s mother.
“The Daily Mail has printed a completely fabricated story about my fiancée’s mother opposing our marriage for religious reasons. It says Amal’s mother has been telling ‘half of Beirut’ that she’s against the wedding. It says they joke about traditions in the Druze religion that end up with the death of the bride. Let me repeat that: the death of the bride,” George wrote in USA Today.
In denying the veracity of the story, he said as “the son of a newsman; I accept the idea that freedom of speech can be an inconvenience to my private life from time to time,” but takes issue when they concern his loved ones.
“The Daily Mail, more than any other organization that calls itself news, has proved time and time again that facts make no difference in the articles they make up. And when they put my family and my friends in harm’s way, they cross far beyond just a laughable tabloid and into the arena of inciting violence,” he wrote. Despite receiving an apology from the publication, George refused to accept it, as “The Mail knew the story in question was false and printed it anyway.”
George’s contentious relationship with the press came to a head in 2021, this time around the issue of his young kids.
Amal Clooney, George Clooney (2022), (Joe Maher/Getty Images)In 2021, George felt compelled to once again pen an open letter to the media after Daily Mail published photographs of actress Billie Lourd’s newborn child. He made a desperate plea for all publications to refrain from publishing pictures of celebrities’ children, including his own.
“Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd’s 1-year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children’s faces in your publication,” he entreated.
He said while he and Amal had accepted that the nature of their jobs put their lives in the public eye, violating his children’s privacy crossed the line.
“I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment,” George wrote.
Apart from attempting to shield his children from the prying eyes of strangers, George explained how printing even one photograph of his kids could put them in harm’s way.
“The nature of my wife’s work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover,” he wrote.
“We have never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences.”
He made a final plea to the press to exercise compassion and behave ethically. “We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisements isn’t greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted.”
George Clooney (2019), (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)What do you think about George Clooney’s plea to the press? Do you feel his reasons for wanting the press not to print pictures of his kids are valid? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this along to friends and family, too.
