George Clooney Opens Up About the 'Very Emotional' Moment He and Wife Amal Decided to Have Kids

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[size=48]George Clooney Opens Up About the 'Very Emotional' Moment He and Wife Amal Decided to Have Kids
George and Amal Clooney share 4-year-old twins Ella and Alexander
By Georgia SlaterNovember 15, 2021 04:15 PM
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George Clooney loves his role as a dad to twins despite his early hesitations about becoming a parent.
The actor, 60, recently caught up with Marc Maron on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast and recalled the day he found out he and wife Amal were expecting twins.
"Listen, I didn't want to get married. I didn't want to have kids. And then this extraordinary human being walked into my life and I just fell madly in love. Then I knew from the minute I met her that everything was going to be different," he begins.
"I didn't know I'd have twins," he says. "There is that moment when you go to the doctor and they pull out this piece of paper which is a sonogram and they go, 'Here' and you go, 'It's a baby boy.' I'm like, 'Baby boy, fantastic,' " he recalled. "And then they said, 'And the other one is the girl' and I was like, 'Oh s—t.' "

"[Amal's] sister has twins and I was gobsmacked because... I was kind of up for one. … I love it now," he says of being a dad to 4-year-old twins Ella and Alexander. "And thank God they have each other during the pandemic."[/size][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]





The Ocean's Eleven star also spoke about when he and Amal first discussed having kids together.
"So we've been married for about a year and we were at a friend's house, and they had a kid there which was loud and obnoxious and I was like, 'Holy s—t.' We went outside for a walk. And she'd never thought about it, really. And so then she said, 'We are awfully lucky in life.' And I said, 'Yeah, we are lucky we found each other,' " Clooney recalled. "She said, 'Seems like that luck should be shared with some other folks.' "
The actor said he "thought about it for maybe a minute" and didn't think either of them had "made a decision" about kids at the time.
"And then I just said, 'Well, I mean, if you're in' and she said, 'I think we should try.' I have to say it was very emotional because I really was convinced that wasn't my lot in life and was comfortable with that," he added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Clooney shared the one thing that he wants to instill in his children.
"I'm really aware of a couple of things, which is I'm aware of the danger of celebrity with kids and I'm aware of the danger of having means with kids," he said, recalling his own childhood when his mother made his clothes and when his family moved around due to his father's jobs.
"I learned to be scrappy because of that. You can put me in any situation, I can survive," Clooney said. "I can survive anything. I had to make sure that that's something that our kids get. That's important to me."

Yet he's madly in love with a woman who never learned to cook...

I've been happily married for 33 years and I never learned how to cook, either! Fortunately my firefighter husband is great at it!

Why would cooking have anything to do with it?  He has a private chef and enough money to order food in from any restaurant he fancies.

It's just that he's always said he really values being self-sufficient - and then goes and marries someone who can't cook (or is it really "won't"). I've always felt that proudly proclaiming "I can't ...." (fill in your choice of task) is a passive-aggressive way to get someone else to do it for you. Or maybe with her it's the "princess and the pea" syndrome and she's just too delicate (or important) for something so menial. Either way, I hope the twins are being taught to do for themselves.

To be able to say that you don't cook is in some ways to be admired - I've tried that on a lot.

Unfortunately never been in a position to have the staff to do it! As far as I recall from George's chats, none of the family do, but given their standing throughout their lives  I assume they did have cooks from the get-go, both in Lebanon and here.

Lucky them!

ps Off to pretend to cook in a while...Where's the wine?

PAN - There's a difference between trying and having a less-than-favorable outcome and proudly proclaiming "I can't" in order to get out of doing it. Apparently, she was raised to believe someone else would do it for her - and it would seem she was right. Lucky her!

Turns out she's a brilliant human rights lawyer all over the world - and used to advise judges instead, Lizzy!

  I also think that when your father is head of the International School in Lebanon and along the way owns most of the national airline, if you're not great at cooking it doesn't really matter. She's obviously intelligent enough to know food values and diets...not sure it's ever been a question of 'getting out of it' really. She's great at reservations tho apparently - and even if she wasn't that great I'm sure there a millions who stick something in a microwave when they get  back from the office....and anybody can stick can stick some chickpeas and beans in a saucepan and put them on the hot plate..

As for cleaning etc, of course there's a huge investment out there of chemical rubbish to help you clean...and we all know that dust is a four letter word and is going to reappear the next day - so let it!

PAN - Sorry, but the "brilliant lawyer" thing doesn't fly - at least not with me. There are millions of women who work their butts off outside the home and are still expected to cook, clean, raise the kids and keep their partners happy (if they have one). No one lets them off the hook because they do their jobs well.

I'm not suggesting that everyone must be a gourmet chef, or even a decent cook. Microwaves were sent by God for a reason. I guess it's just the assumption that someone will always be around to cater for her needs that annoys me since, for so many others, it's not even a remote option.

My daughter doen't cook her fiance does. And if I didn't have to I wouldn't. Amal is lucky she doen't have to.do it. Not everyone even those who must do it want to. And I'll admit I would love to have a staff to do every thing yes I would.
No shame in it it , I think we should all do  what we want and if we don't then if you have another option then don't. There are people who don't clean their own houses yes they aren't rich but cleaning isn't something they  like so they hire people.
I don't think anyone is letting Amal off the hook, she is who she is and cooking isn't her thing. According to George she ia a great partner and mother so everything equals out.

OK, I give up! Maybe it's just the teacher in me that doesn't like it when someone says "I can't" when it really means "I don't want to". 

If there's something you don't like to do, and someone else wants to do it for you, fine. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with expecting others to do things for you as your due. (And I'm speaking generally, not about Amal.)

I had the assumption that Amal didn't know how to cook. Not that she was unwilling to learn. I know George cooked before they had the chef. Now that they've had kids, I'm sure Amal's learned a little bit in order to feed the kids. Even if it's just scrambled eggs and French toast. Unless the nanny cooks. I heard they only have a nanny 4 days a week so I'm sure Amal and George both have to cook on occasion. I think the no cooking comments were made when they were dating.

Totally agree with you, Annemarie - there are some who enjoy it, some who don't but like me

  know a lot about diet and try to do all the right things nutrition wise for those  they

  look after. I vaguely remember George recounting Amal having a go at it - but honestly she's

  really never had to. Good for her. 

  ps I was listening to several cooks on tv talking about how to make a crumble more interest-

   ing and I found it difficult to believe that not one of them said just add muesli! And given the 

   obesity figures is Bake Off such a great idea?!

PAN - Bake Off is fun to watch, but luckily watching isn't fattening.  Actually baking, on the other hand... but I think for most of us it's too much work and too likely to go wrong.

Maybe you should send your idea for using muesli to some of those chefs. I bet they never even thought of it.

I don't think she was taught to cook and has never had to. She comes from wealth.

I would assume her "can't cook" is along the lines of my "can't fly a plane". It's not some inherent lack of skill, just the fact that it's never featured in her life and she has no particular interest in doing so.

I don't know how it is in the US, but in the UK if you live in a big city as she does there's no need to know how to cook. I can't imagine her living off more than toast/cereal in the morning, then the ubiquitous sandwich for lunch followed by box salad or sushi in the evening if she's not going out for dinner. They've even stopped putting kitchens in newly built flats as there's a demand for this kind of living [essentially the 'kitchen' is part of the living room, usually a small counter, a microwave and fridge].

Seems to me building flats without a kitchen is a bit shortsighted. It assumes a lot of people have enough disposable income to pay the higher cost of pre-made/restaurant meals. Lots of rich kids living on mummy and daddy's dime?

LizzyNY wrote: Lots of rich kids living on mummy and daddy's dime?

Not even. Just working singletons or couples in the city. It's a pretty common build style since the turn of this century for one-bed flats.

I guess I'm not explaining it really well because I can't imagine it's that different in the US? For people in their 20s who are working, cooking doesn't have to be a thing. Breakfast, if eaten at all, is usually either cereal or toast (or those god-awful breakfast bar things), neither of which needs a kitchen. Lunch is eaten al-desko or in a nearby park and most shops have meal deals of a main, a snack, a sweet and a drink for about £3.50. Yes you can make the same lunch at home for less [but try telling the young 'uns that!) but it's still a good deal, and again, you don't need a kitchen to make sandwiches. Then dinner. People eat out several times a week, seem get pizza at least once a week and that leaves only a few nights when you need to fend for yourself. Again, the supermarkets have that covered with their infinite variety of fresh, chilled and frozen ready meals. And then there's the constant snacking: coffees and muffins from the coffee shop mid-morning. Some kind of sweet pick-me-up in the mid-afternoon.

I'm not making the argument that it's cheaper to eat this way because I'm convinced it's not. And yep, it can be unhealthier than cooking, depending on what you choose to buy because you never know what's in those meals. But you can also buy healthy food too.

I guess it's not too different here for single people. It just seems that once you're a couple with a kid or two, that kind of flat would have very limited appeal. Are they so much of the real estate market in the cities that families would have a hard time finding a flat?

Yes, you're right, Katie. There's so much awareness now of what's good to eat which the next generation are taking on board - and loads of prepared organic boxes of things like falafels, or filo pastry parcels of say feta and spinach.

The other thing that seems to have happened - and lockdown may have helped - is that the next generation seem to be taking on the vegetarian thing because of climate change, lockdown, and are just being more inventive without it costing a lot. 

Or maybe in my case, my lot are
simply better at cooking because their mother isn't that great!

LizzyNY wrote:I guess it's not too different here for single people. It just seems that once you're a couple with a kid or two, that kind of flat would have very limited appeal. Are they so much of the real estate market in the cities that families would have a hard time finding a flat?

Oh, it's a design aimed at singletons/couples. Once you have a family it's assumed you're going to want to buy a house.

Anyway, my apologies for taking us so wildly off topic! All my fault.