Yahoo Lifestyle “We Deal In Very Serious Subject Matters”: George Clooney Said He Doesn’t Want His 7-Year-Old Twins To Be Photographed Because Of “Serious Bad Guys”
For decades, we’ve known George Clooney as a movie star. But, in the past few years, we’ve learned more about him as a father.
In 2017, George and his wife, lawyer and human rights activist Amal Clooney, welcomed twins Alexander and Ella.
Despite being known worldwide, George and Amal are incredibly private, so it’s hardly surprising that we haven’t ever seen much of the twins, who turned 7 in June.
And now, in a joint interview with Brad Pitt for GQ, George has opened up about why it’s so important to him and Amal to protect Ella and Alexander’s privacy as much as possible.
The interview was conducted at Brad’s Château Miraval winery in France, and the story notes that Amal and the twins made a brief appearance to greet George and Brad on the estate.
“A lot of people — even who reach a fairly high level of fame — find a way to be able to kind of live a normal life, walk around the streets of New York without being followed and stuff like that,” George said in response to a question about navigating celebrity. “And there’s, I dunno, five or six of us where it’s just never subsided.”
“There’s never been that like, ‘Hey, let’s take a walk through Central Park and not get hammered,’” he said. “It just hasn’t happened yet. It will, obviously. But it hasn’t happened yet.”
Given his fame and the amount of scrutiny he has faced, George said he feels a huge responsibility to distance his children from the public eye and prevent photographs of them circulating online.
“I have a goal of trying to protect, I don’t want pictures of my kids,” he said. “We deal in very serious subject matters, with very serious bad guys, and we don’t want to have photos of our kids out there. So we have to work hard at trying to stay private, and it’s tricky, as you can imagine.”
Brad and George also agreed that they will sometimes “avoid going to the hospital with something that you would normally go to the hospital for” out of fear that the trip might generate “headlines.”
“It’s absolutely true,” George said. “You will assess how bad something is before you go.”
Of course, George and Amal aren't the first famous parents to go to great lengths to avoid having their children photographed. Other A-list couples, including Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, as well as Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, have talked openly in the past about keeping their kids’ faces hidden from the public.
Eva previously said that she won’t share photographs of her and Ryan’s 8- and 9-year-old daughters “until they’re old enough” to give consent. Most recently, she thanked broadcasters, photographers, and media outlets for respecting her and Ryan’s wishes when they attended the Olympics as a family this month.
“I love @nbcolympics didn’t cut away to the kids ! And most sites blurred their faces so mama bear is happy about that,” she wrote in the comments section of an Instagram post. “Anyway it felt so good to be there and feel unified with people.”
You can read George and Brad’s full GQ interview here.
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Here’s What Eva Mendes Had To Say To People Who Accused Her Of “Complaining” About Her Fame After She Shared Her Discomfort At Being Photographed By The Paparazzi In PublicLeyla Mohammed · Aug. 8, 2024
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