Have Clooneys left their £10m mansion on the banks of the Thames?
HOLLYWOOD’S favourite power couple George and Amal Clooney spent years – and many millions – building themselves a ‘nice little world’ on one of the most idyllic stretches of the River Thames.
The couple snapped up their Grade II-listed mansion on a five-acre island near Sonning, Berkshire, for a reported £10million in September 2014, days before their wedding at Venice’s Aman Canal Grande hotel.
After an extensive 18-month refurbishment costing several million pounds, the nine-bedroom, ivy-covered manor house, which is protected from prying eyes by a row of willow trees, today boasts a large swimming pool and pool house, a grand terrace, a boat house, an astroturf tennis court and a 12-seater cinema.
But despite the expense they lavished on the property, locals in the village say that the Clooneys have upped sticks and headed for sunnier climes.
Sources told The Mail on Sunday that George, 62, and his wife Amal, 45, who were once regular patrons at Sonning’s local pubs and restaurants, have not been living at the abode for at least two years. A nearby neighbour, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: ‘They used to be around much more, but they’ve not been seen for over two years or so as far as I know.
‘It’s fairly common knowledge that this isn’t where they live any more, at least not permanently. They’re never here.’
George and Amal moved to Sonning after finishing their renovations around a year before the birth of their twins, Ella and Alexander, in June 2017.
George was soon waxing lyrical about the charms of the area, which is also home to Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. He said of the timberframed Bull Inn: ‘There’s a great pub we go to. It’s fantastic and we drink all kinds of pints and things.’ He also told the BBC’s The One Show: ‘There’s a wonderful little restaurant called The French Horn down the street we walk to.
‘We have a really nice, little world right there, that’s very private and very quaint and, really, the people are lovely so I love it.’
A source close to the family said the couple are now splitting their time between Italy and the US. They are thought to be most often at Villa Oleandra, an 18th Century pile on the shore of Lake Como.
Human-rights lawyer Amal was brought up just 20 miles away from Sonning in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, where her mother Baria Alamuddin still lives.