For years, George Clooney was Hollywood's most eligible bachelor. Then everything changed
when he met Amal Alamuddin. Ever since the two said "I do," they've both done a lot of
things they never thought they would. This is the truth about Amal's marriage to George
Clooney.
You usually don't meet your significant other's parents until things are serious. For the
Clooneys, however, this meeting happened a lot sooner. While George Clooney was spending
some time at his vacation home in Italy in 2013, a friend of his asked to stop by with
someone on their way to the Cannes Film Festival. Of course, the actor agreed, and his friend
walked in along with a woman named Amal. George told The Hollywood Reporter,
"I thought she was beautiful, and I thought she was funny and obviously smart."
Little did the actor know at the time that the entire Clooney clan was meeting the woman
he would soon marry. During his appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with
David Letterman, Clooney recalled:
"The funniest thing was my mom and dad were visiting, so my parents were there. And we
just talked, and we stayed up all night talking."
Though these two hit it off as soon as they met, Amal and George Clooney didn't start
dating until long after that. Instead, the two emailed back and forth for a few months
before ever seeing each other again. Though the actor was interested in something much
more with Amal, he was unsure if she wanted to go out with him. Clooney told Letterman:
"I just thought, you know, we were buddies."
Secretly, she was interested in him too, and she even shared with Vogue that the actor
would send her emails from the perspective of his cocker spaniel Einstein, in hopes she
would come visit the pup. After many, many emails, the two finally got together in person
a few months later. Funnily enough, though they live together now, they still make time
to write to one another. The actor said during an interview with AARP:
"I'll write a letter and slip it on her desk, or she'll write a letter and leave it under
the pillow. I'm a big believer in letters."
Of all the places they could have gone on a first date, Amal and George Clooney chose
a recording studio. While the actor was working in London in 2013, Amal had mentioned that
she was in the city, too. Even though George was busy scoring his movie The Monuments Men,
he decided to invite her over to his "office" for the day.
"We were scoring at Abbey Road. And I thought, well, 'If you're ever going to impress anybody,
it's with a 150-piece orchestra at Abbey Road.'"
Looking back, he achieved his goal: Amal was obviously impressed. The two continued their
first date at a fancy restaurant in London that evening, and when they came out, there
were 50 paparazzi there, the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. Though their relationship
wasn't yet official, everybody in the world seemed to know about their romance. Over the
next six weeks, the two continued to spend time together hiding out at Amal's apartment
in London.
"We were together from that moment on."
After six months of dating, George Clooney knew Amal was the one. Because of that, he
had a very important question to ask her in 2014. As he waited for her to return home
from a trip to London, he cooked dinner, pulled up a special playlist of music, and hid a
7-carat ring. When the moment finally came, he asked her to open the box, and got down
on one knee, as he explained on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Like nearly every person who's
been proposed to, Amal was stunned. In fact, she was so stunned that she took nearly a
half an hour to answer him.
In her defense, the two had never discussed the idea of ever getting married prior to
that night. While it took Amal some time to soak in what was happening in that moment,
George patiently waited for her to answer. After a few minutes of being down on one knee,
he began to realize that he needed her to answer a little faster than he had thought.
George joked,
"'Cause I'm 52 and I could throw out my hip pretty soon if I don't get an answer. And
then she said, 'Oh, yes.'"
On September 27, 2014, Amal and George Clooney tied the knot in Italy — the same country
in which they had met a year prior. The actor told People:
"We knew that was where we wanted to get married."
Their ceremony, which took place along the Venice Canals, was relatively small for a
celebrity couple, capped at 100 guests. Their family, of course, was in attendance, along
with some famous friends like Matt Damon, Bono, Emily Blunt, and John Krasinski. The
wedding details were a bit more extravagant. Both Amal and George were decked out in designer
wear, and the couple even sent each of their guests home with iPods as party favors. As
lavish as their special day was, the most important part for these two now was getting
to spend forever together. George told GQ:
"I didn't know how un-full [my life] was until I met Amal. And then everything changed."
When George Clooney first laid eyes on Amal, he was immediately taken aback by her beauty.
However, he's still not sure what she thought of him when they met. Clooney admitted to
The Hollywood Reporter:
"She probably thought I was old."
After all, the two are 17 years apart in age. Though George has been linked to many high-profile
actresses over the course of his career, it wasn't until he was 52 years old that he met
the woman with whom he would finally settle down. Even though Amal is quite a bit younger
than the actor, she was unsure herself that she would ever marry because of her own age.
Amal told Vogue:
"I was 35 when I met him. It wasn't obvious that it was going to happen for me."
While they may have met later in their lives than they would have liked, it was obviously
at the right time. Meeting at the exact moment that they did taught them an important lesson,
too. George told People:
"We really are aware of time and how precious it is. And how lucky we are to be together."
Everybody knows George Clooney from the iconic television series ER. The show is what helped
his career take off and even made him a heartthrob to many women around the world. Ironically,
Amal had never even seen the series until after she married him. It wasn't until the
cast reunion rolled around in 2021 that Amal made time to sit down and watch the series.
As exciting as it may have been to have his wife binge-watching his breakout role, it
actually broke her heart to see her husband in character. The actor said during the virtual
cast reunion:
"My wife has been watching it. This has been a very, very disastrous thing for me. Because
I forgot all of the terrible things I did as Dr. Ross."
As Amal has continued to watch the show, it's brought up a lot of other important questions,
too.
"My wife keeps going, 'Is that it? Are you done? It's Season 3. Do you finally settle
down with Nurse Hathaway?'"
In the end, the only important part is that he settled down with Amal.
It turns out, George Clooney is quite a trickster — and his pranks don't stop when it comes
to his partner. Perhaps his proudest achievement is the fact that his love of pranks is rubbing
off on his twins, Alexander and Ella. George teased in an interview on Today:
"I really do enjoy teaching my children to do things that shock their mother."
The actor's favorite trick to pull on Amal can be a bit stomach-turning to strangers
who happen to see. The actor admitted to People:
"I did work with them on putting Nutella in a diaper and then eating it."
It seems as though George is passing down the family legacy of becoming a prankster.
However, Amal doesn't seem to mind too much. She said during a speech at the American Film
Institute:
"George is definitely a gentleman."
Amal and George Clooney never discussed having children until a few years into their marriage.
They eventually decided they'd love to have a baby — so you can imagine their surprise
when, in 2017, they found out they would be having twins instead. The actor described
on CBS Sunday Morning:
"All of a sudden, it's like two. And I literally — it's hard to get me to not talk, and I
just stood there for ten minutes staring at the piece of paper."
In retrospect, the Clooneys shouldn't have been as shocked as they were, considering
twins run in Amal's family. Over the years, there have been reports that the Clooneys
are planning to expand their family further. However, these rumors are certainly not true.
These two admitted during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that they won't be
having any more children. Amal said:
"I already had them quite late."
Watching Amal tackle major issues as an international human rights lawyer has always been inspiring
to George Clooney. Many times, he's even used his celebrity status to shine a spotlight
into his wife's world. In 2016, the two of them created their own organization to help
fight for human rights called the Clooney Foundation for Justice — which quickly gained
attention around the globe. Amal told Today:
"I think it's wonderful that celebrities would choose to spend their time or energy or the
spotlight that they have to raise awareness about these causes. I don't really see myself
in [that] way because I'm still doing the same job that I used to do before."
Their work is focused specifically in northeastern Africa, which has become an extremely dangerous
area amidst the conflict there. Their foundation has made its mission to advocate for the people
in the area and help bring an end to the violence that surrounds these African families on a
daily basis — all in order to make the world a better place. George told People:
"I hope that would be my wife's and my legacy to our children."
George is the cook in their relationship
Amal Clooney is an extremely accomplished woman. George even gushed to CBS Sunday Morning:
"And I'm telling you, she can do anything."
Despite his confidence in her, there's one thing he admits that she, unfortunately, can't
do — cook. George said:
"If she walks near a pan in the kitchen, the whole place would fall apart."
It turns out, no one in Amal's family has any expertise when it comes to conquering
the kitchen. As a result, Amal has never really learned how to make a home-cooked meal. Instead,
her husband is the one who's always there to make them a delicious dinner for date night
— just like the one he made the night he proposed to her. With that being said, there
is one thing Amal is great at making when they're both hungry. During his appearance
on CBS Sunday Morning, the actor joked:
"My wife makes reservations for dinner."
Getting married completely changes a person's life — but marrying one of the world's biggest
movie stars changed Amal Clooney's life in many more ways. Clooney admitted to The Hollywood
Reporter:
"[Being a public figure is] a little like being in a parade, and it's not easy — particularly
for her. Because, in general, we live a very private life."
Or, at least, they try to, anyway. Even when the Clooneys were just beginning to get to
know one another, they were always swarmed by paparazzi. The couple hid their relationship
for months, and it makes sense why. The actor said on The Howard Stern Show:
"You want to get to know each other and spend time with each other and not do it on the
front of Hello! Magazine."
Getting used to her privacy being invaded has not been easy for Amal. She can't even
walk down the street to visit her brother without being swarmed by people with cameras.
Yet, there's just something about George that makes it all worth it. As Amal said during
a speech at the American Film Institute,
"I would never want to be with anyone else."
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