George Clooney has no regrets about moving his family out of Los Angeles.
“We’re very lucky. You know, we live on a farm in France,” Clooney, 64, told Esquire in an interview published on Monday, October 6. “A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid, I hated the whole idea of it. 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.”
The Ocean’s Eleven star, who shares 8-year-old twins Ella and Alexander with wife Amal Clooney, added that he was “worried about raising [their] kids in L.A.” before the move — “in the culture of Hollywood.”
“I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life,” he explained of his children. “France — they kind of don’t give a s*** about fame. I don’t want [my kids] to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
George previously opened up about life in France in a February interview with The New York Times.
“Growing up in Kentucky, all I wanted to do was get away from a farm, get away from that life,” he said. “Now I find myself back in that life. I drive a tractor and all those things. It’s the best chance of a normal life.”
George and Amal, 47, met in Lake Como, Italy, in 2013. Us Weekly later confirmed in April 2014 that the couple had gotten engaged. They tied the knot months later in September.
“We never talked about marriage when we were dating, and I asked her out of the blue,” George revealed to CBS in November 2020. “[It] took her a long time to say yes. I was on my knee for, like, 20 minutes. I finally said, ‘Look, I’m gonna throw my hip out.’ We told that story to her parents, and they’re like, ‘There’s something wrong with his hip?’”
Us confirmed in February 2017 that Amal and George were expecting. They welcomed Ella and Alexander that June.
George opened up about becoming a father in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“The first thing you think is, ‘I hope I don’t screw this up.’ I mean, look, we are all responsible for things in life, and Amal and I are responsible for each other in a way — we look out for one another and we care about one another,” the actor told the outlet at the time. “But you are really responsible for two kids. I want them to be happy. I want them to have a sense of humor. I want them to be interested in things. I want them to be compassionate about other people’s plights. Because that’s the thing, you know? You have to have some sort of empathy.”
The Ticket to Paradise actor also gushed about his fatherhood during a 2021 appearance on Today.
“[It’s given me] a sense of belonging and a sense of home and unconditional love — all the things that you were hoping you could get from a really good career and a dog. You realize that this is a lot more than that,” he said, adding that he’s glad he “found the right person to have [kids] with.”