New life with THEIR TWINS
With the arrival of ‘stunningly beautiful’ Ella and Alexander, George and Amal Clooney embrace their next chapter—an instant family of four
Sitting up in her hospital bed in London, hours after giving birth to twins Ella and Alexander, Amal Clooney cradled her dark-haired babies in her arms as she introduced them in a video call to her in-laws, Nick and Nina Clooney, who were anxiously awaiting the debut at their Kentucky home. “What I saw were these two perfect, picturepostcard babies,” Nick tells WHO. Amal looked “cliché-perfect” in the cyber-introduction, which also included George’s sister, Adelia, marvels Nick. “You know 1940s movies where the woman just had a baby and they looked gorgeous? My God!” he says. “George looked more harried,” adds Nick. While the new dad seemed ready for a nap, not so the squirming newborns: “They were both very active!”
Nick, 83, isn’t the only family member who is smitten following the birth of George and Amal Clooney’s twins on June 6, three months shy of the couple’s third wedding anniversary. Amal’s mother, Baria Alamuddin, tells WHO she is overwhelmed with love and gratitude. “Seeing these two angels, these stunningly beautiful babies ... cuddled together, and seeing the joy on Amal and George’s faces, it’s one of those deeply felt beautiful feelings you can’t express in words,” says Alamuddin, who was at the birth and saw George in blue scrubs “similar to the ones he wore in E.R.” The first-time parents are naturals, gushes the Londonbased journalist. “Oh my God, Amal and George were so beautiful—they were so happy, so contented.”
It’s indeed a joyous new chapter for the international human-rights barrister, 39, and the Hollywood powerhouse (and former avowed bachelor), 56, who made headlines in February when they revealed— via a friend, TV host Julie Chen—they were expecting twins. The birth announcement also employed George’s signature sense of humour: “Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine,” read the couple’s statement. “George is sedated and should recover in a few days.”
His father seemed to second that: “George, well, his eyes were glazed, so I’m not sure he was sober,” joked Nick Clooney. If the new dad was out for the count, he surely had a soft landing, with the babies reportedly born in the posh Kensington Wing of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where private rooms are equipped with every luxury, including 24-hour room service and à la carte menus as well as on-call support from medical specialists. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, according to the grandparents. “It was a beautiful delivery,” Alamuddin told Agence France-presse. “They are in great health. All is perfect,” added Amal’s father, Ramzi Alamuddin, who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where Amal was born. “I am very happy for them.”
Happy neatly sums up the new dad’s state of mind, too. “George is on cloud nine and hasn’t left Amal’s side,” an insider told E! Meanwhile, the actor’s equally besotted parents are having fun working out which grandchild looks like who. “Nina swears they have George’s nose,” said Nick Clooney. “Not both of them ... the little boy looked like he had [George’s] nose,
“This change is more profound than any change in his life” —Nick Clooney
his little profile.” Either way, the pigeon pair, said Nick, are “gorgeous.”
At press time a photo of the twins had not been released, but news of their arrival sparked a deluge of well wishes from pals and family, including Amal’s sister, Tala Alamuddin; the entrepreneur and mother of four (including twins) shared a jubilant post with hashtags including #Doublingdown #poweroftwo # Totallydoubled. “They have received gifts from friends around the world and have a lot to bring home with them,” said the E! insider. Cindy Crawford’s husband, Rande Gerber, who co-owns tequila brand Casamigos with George, shared a video on Instagram of boxes of nappies—and tequila— bound for the Clooneys. “Special delivery,” Gerber captioned the footage. Doting grandma Alamuddin was spotted shopping for her seventh and eighth grandkids at the E- Side boutique in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, hours after their birth. “She bought two romper suits in organic cotton,” says an onlooker. “She made sure she had organic cotton made without pesticides and chemical-free.”
Other celebrities shared their congratulations on social media and in interviews: “Welcome to the world, Ella and Alexander Clooney. Congratulations George and Amal, or as I’m now calling you, Ocean’s Four,” tweeted Ellen Degeneres, while Nicole Kidman turned clucky on the red carpet at the Glamour Awards in London when she heard: “Any time a baby is born, I’m like, ‘Ahh!’ So two babies, it’s double ‘Ahh!’ They have the most joyful journey ahead.”
Family life is a path many close to George thought he would never travel—the star himself believed as much: “I don’t have that gene that people have to replicate,” he told WHO in 2006. His friend Matt Damon has said that any conversation about having a family was “a total nonstarter” for George—but then came Amal. The pair met in 2013, when Amal attended a dinner with mutual friends. Nick Clooney happened to be with his son on that auspicious day. “She was so remarkable and he was so remarkable around her. It was just different than all the other relationships I had seen him in,” the retired anchorman tells WHO. “I really think by the time that first [meeting] was over, his and her fates were sealed.”
That October, the pair were first spotted in public together having dinner in London, where they discussed a satellite program in Syria, George’s rep said at the time (Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel Project monitors human-rights abuses). Both passionate humanitarians, the photogenic duo embarked on a jetsetting love affair that moved lightning
fast: they were engaged by April 2014 and exchanged vows in Venice five months later, their glamorous nuptials harking back to the golden age of Hollywood. “All I know is that [Amal] sort of changed everything in terms of what I thought my future—my personal future—was going to be,” George told WHO in 2015. Amal’s pregnancy completed the fairytale. “I didn’t know that we’d have kids,” George told E! News. “I was very happy that we were going to get married and then it seemed like the next step.”
With that came a new way of life. Shortly after the pregnancy became public, George told Paris Match that he and his wife were reining in their travel. “We decided to be much more responsible, to avoid the danger,” the actor said in February. Instead they began spending more time at their Georgian-style home in the countryside near Sonning, west of London (they also have residences in Lake Como in Italy, Los Angeles and Mexico). The couple bought the historic mansion soon after their wedding and embarked on a two-year renovation, which included adding a pool, garden terrace and theatre room. “[ We’re] really excited—love it,” George told Good Morning Britain in 2015.
Their English retreat proved perfect for nesting. George, who boasted of his babyprep in March (“I know swaddling, I know what I’m in for”) was often “heard playing tennis against his ball machine” and working late into the night in his garden shed, a source told WHO in May. Husband and wife were spotted strolling hand-in-hand near their estate, rugged up in scarves, both seeming to enjoy pressing pause on their frantic schedules. “She is doing really great,” George told Extra in March of Amal. “She is amazing. I don’t have anything to do. There is nothing I can do to help, but make tea and stuff.”
The house will also serve as a base for Amal when she’s ready to return to her career. “She plans to be back at work around six months after giving birth,” a source told E! News. “But her schedule will be greatly different ... a lot of time spent working at home. She has a great office set up at the Sonning house.” Amal and George will reportedly not employ a full-time nanny, but will hire a night nurse and take up Alamuddin’s offer of help.
For now, though, the unflappable new mum’s focus is squarely on her family. “Amal was the calm one in the centre of all this storm,” recalls Nick of his daughter-in-law’s demeanour after giving birth. “She is just so in charge of things and so strong.” And headover-heels in love with her babies—as is her husband, though he once never imagined the possibility. “This change is more profound than any change in his life, and he is excited,” says his dad. “The way they held the babies, the way they looked at them, it was indescribable pride and joy,” adds Alamuddin. “You just look at them and you feel like they’ve been a mother and father for their whole lives.”
“This change is more profound than any change in his life” —Nick Clooney