George Clooney has opened up about his relationship with wife Amal in a revealing new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, charting their love story from first meeting to the recent birth of their twins Ella and Alexander.
Discussing their first meeting at a dinner party in Lake Como back in July 2013, the actor and director recalled: ‘I thought she was beautiful, and I thought she was funny and obviously smart […] Then she sent some pictures from when she was here, and we were writing each other, emailing, talking, mostly about what was going on in each other’s lives, and over a period of time it became clear we were more than just friends.’
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Shortly after, the couple’s first ‘date’ came when they met up in London’s Abbey Road Studios, where Clooney was overseeing the soundtrack for his film The Monuments Men, and was shortly followed by Christmas in Cabo San Lucas and a safari trip to Kenya. Then, in April 2014, came Clooney’s proposal, which involved pasta, champagne, a song with special significance and… a 20 wait.
‘I did pasta of some form, not that impressive,’ he told the magazine. ‘And then over champagne, after dinner, I told her there was a lighter to light the candle in the drawer and she reached back and pulled out a ring. And I did all the stuff, got down on my knee and did all the things you’re supposed to do. I had a playlist with my Rosemary songs on it [by his aunt, Rosemary Clooney] and I was waiting for this song, ‘Why Shouldn’t I’ – “Why shouldn’t I take a chance when romance passes by? / Why shouldn’t I know of love?” It’s a really good song about why can’t I be in love? And it played, and she’s like, “Holy shit!” And she just kept staring at the ring, going, “Oh my God.” It was 20 minutes of me on my knee, waiting for her to say yes, because she was so shocked.’
In reference to having found love later in life (now 56, Clooney was 53 at the time of his marriage), the actor explained, ‘I’m sorry I was 50-something when it happened, but only because I could have spent even more time with her.’
While the couple had never discussed the possibility of having children while dating, with George having previously assumed that he hadn’t wanted them, that changed after marriage, with the pair realising that ‘we’d gotten very lucky, both of us, and we should share whatever good luck we’ve got. It would seem self-centred to just have that belong to us.’ According to Amal, though, the Clooneys are unlikely to have more children after the twins. ‘I’m 39. I already had them quite late,’ she told THR.
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