George Clooney and family awarded French citizenship
American actor George Clooney, his wife, human rights lawyer Amal and their two children have been granted French citizenship, the government said.
Their farm in the south of France serves as the family’s main residence. The couple bought the house in 2021.
“I was worried about raising our kids in Los Angeles, in the Hollywood culture,” George Clooney said in an interview with Esquire magazine earlier this year. “I don’t want them walking around worrying about the paparazzi. I don’t want them to be compared to other people’s celebrity kids.”
Their new citizenship was announced to the public in the Journal Officiel, where the decrees of the French government were published.
“We live on a farm in France,” Clooney told Esquire. “Growing up, most of my life was spent on the farm, and as a kid I hated the idea.
“But now it’s like, for them: They’re not on their iPads, you know? They’re having dinner with adults, and they have to do their dishes, too. They have a much better life.”
The family lives in Brignoles in the south of France and, according to the city’s mayor, they lead a normal life there.
Didier Brémond told broadcaster BFMTV that the Clooneys were “a very simple and very accessible family.”
The mayor said his decision to become a French citizen was a testament to his “love for our country”.
“He wants to live normally here and that’s what he’s trying to do,” he said.
According to the New York Times, in addition to his homes in France, George Clooney also has a home in England and his hometown in Kentucky.
The Clooneys’ twins, Ella and Alexander, were born in London in 2017.
Their mother was born in Lebanon and raised in the UK.
Journal Officiel indicates that Amal Clooney was naturalized under her maiden name, Amal Alamuddin.
It seems that it is easier for Amal Clooney and her children to adapt to French life than for her husband.
George Clooney said his wife and children speak excellent French in a recent interview promoting his new movie Jay Kelly.
But the actor described his French as “terrible” despite trying to teach himself the language using an app.
“They speak French in front of me so that they can say terrible things about me to my face, and I don’t know,” he joked, speaking to French broadcaster Canal+.
