George Clooney has opened up about raising his children in rural France, saying it has given them “a much better life” than they would have had in Los Angeles.
Speaking with Esquire, the 64-year-old actor described how life on the family’s French farm keeps his twins, Alexander and Ella Clooney, 8, grounded and away from Hollywood’s spotlight.
“You know, we live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid, I hated the whole idea of it,” Clooney said.
“But now, for them, it’s like — they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in.”
“They have a much better life,” he added.
Clooney said he and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, made a point of raising their children outside the entertainment industry’s culture.
“I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood. I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life,” he said.
“France — they kind of don’t give a [expletive] about fame.”
“I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
Amal Clooney has also been in the news recently for her work with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In April 2025, she and several senior ICC legal advisers were warned by the U.K. Foreign Office that they could face U.S. sanctions under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, The Guardian reported.
The order targeted ICC officials involved in investigations that Washington has criticized, including a November 2024 arrest warrant the court issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Clooney has not publicly discussed his wife’s legal work but told CNN’s Anderson Cooper earlier this year, “My wife spent two years in a bunker trying Hezbollah. She’s the only person to put ISIS on trial.”
“She’s the bravest person I’ve ever met. We have other issues besides just worrying about an American administration saying unkind things about us.”
At the time, Clooney was promoting a Broadway version of his 2005 film “Good Night, and Good Luck,” and he admitted to Esquire that performing it was more stressful than he expected at his age
“As you get older, it doesn’t matter how many granola bars you eat; your brain starts to lock up,” he said.
“I had all these long monologues, and I was afraid of blowing my lines. So every single night for 100 performances, I would do the whole play in the dressing room before I went onstage.”
“I was so terrified,” added Clooney.
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