George Clooney was ‘gobsmacked’ when he learned Amal was expecting twins

London Film Festival 2021 - The Tender Bar Arrivals at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London

While George and Amal Clooney never confirmed it, I always assumed that they had some medical help conceiving their twins, Alexander and Ella. Given George and Amal’s ages and given the twin thing, I just assumed it was IVF and none of our business. George and Amal don’t have to tell us everything and it’s not like IVF is some scandalous or secretive thing. So many people get help. Well, George gave an interview to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast about how surprised he was when Amal got pregnant with twins? He also says that they didn’t talk about parenthood until after they were married??

George on how he felt before Amal: “Listen, I didn’t want to get married. I didn’t want to have kids. And then this extraordinary human being walked into my life and I just fell madly in love. Then I knew from the minute I met her that everything was going to be different.”

He didn’t know about twins: “I didn’t know I’d have twins. There is that moment when you go to the doctor and they pull out this piece of paper which is a sonogram and they go, ‘Here’ and you go, ‘It’s a baby boy.’ I’m like, ‘Baby boy, fantastic.’ And then they said, ‘And the other one is the girl’ and I was like, ‘Oh s—t.’ [Amal’s] sister has twins and I was gobsmacked because… I was kind of up for one. … I love it now. And thank God they have each other during the pandemic.”

When he & Amal first talked about having kids: “So we’ve been married for about a year and we were at a friend’s house, and they had a kid there which was loud and obnoxious and I was like, ‘Holy s—t.’ We went outside for a walk. And she’d never thought about it, really. And so then she said, ‘We are awfully lucky in life.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we are lucky we found each other.’ She said, ‘Seems like that luck should be shared with some other folks.’” The actor said he “thought about it for maybe a minute” and didn’t think either of them had “made a decision” about kids at the time. “And then I just said, ‘Well, I mean, if you’re in’ and she said, ‘I think we should try.’ I have to say it was very emotional because I really was convinced that wasn’t my lot in life and was comfortable with that.”

What he wants to instill in his kids: “I’m really aware of a couple of things, which is I’m aware of the danger of celebrity with kids and I’m aware of the danger of having means with kids,” he said, recalling his own childhood when his mother made his clothes and when his family moved around due to his father’s jobs. “I learned to be scrappy because of that. You can put me in any situation, I can survive.I can survive anything. I had to make sure that that’s something that our kids get. That’s important to me.”

[From People]

Just because that was the first time Amal talked about kids with George doesn’t mean it was the first time she’d thought about it! He makes it sound like a woman had gotten to her late 30s, landed one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors and somehow never thought about motherhood! What’s funny is that when Amal talks about her life, her marriage and motherhood, she’s very matter-of-fact. She’s very organized, she’s very lawyery, she’s not a head-in-the-clouds romantic. She probably thought “I’ll settle in this marriage for a year and then we’ll have a baby.” Also: please, people, talk about these subjects (money, real estate, babies) before you get married!

Amal Clooney is all smiles as she steps out with her children  Alexander and Ella

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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29 Responses to “George Clooney was ‘gobsmacked’ when he learned Amal was expecting twins”

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  1. NotSoSocialB says:

    Haha, I had twins, and man, let me tell you that you will develop some fabulous biceps carrying two babies around like that. Mine will be 21 in March, and I still have those biceps.😂

  2. Keira says:

    Also more incidence of multiples in pregnancies of women of “advanced maternal age.”

  3. fluffybunny says:

    My MIL is a twin and my SIL has twins and her SIL has 2 sets of identical twins. There was a very uncomfortable 20 minute time frame when we thought we might be having twins and we were terrified.

    • Twinmom says:

      Only fraternal twins are hereditary. Identical twins are just luck. I have no history of twins in my family, but had ID girls.

  4. minx says:

    I get what he’s saying, he didn’t think he would get married or have kids…until he did. The time was just right. Also I respect them for keeping their kids under wraps but I would love to see a newer pic of them.

    • FHMom says:

      I agree with everything you wrote. Those cuties look just like George here. I’d like a new picture, too.

    • Anne Call says:

      I like George, but he’s a guy and that’s the luxury of choice they have. They can put off marriage and especially babies for decades knowing that they still have that option in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I’ve got a few guy friends from college who didn’t become fathers until they were 50. Women have the clock ticking and that noise gets loud in your late 30’s.

  5. Pocket Litter says:

    WTF is great!

    I lean more towards a surrogacy. Where are the other two new ‘adopted’ children?

    • Jaded says:

      She’s talked about the difficulty of breast-feeding the babies in tandem so I don’t think surrogacy was involved.

  6. BW says:

    Is that baby on the left Chris Pine?

  7. Sophia says:

    He said that her brother? has twins too so it might be because they run in the family. But fertility treatment seems pretty likely for their ages. My uncles are twins and I was worried with my second pregnancy that it was twins as it was so different from my first. Thank the Lord it was just one 😀

  8. Concern Fae says:

    If she’d talked about kids, they probably never would have gotten married. My guess is that she was OK either way. If they had kids, great. If it didn’t work out that way, they would have a different, but also fantastic life.

  9. Case says:

    I mean honestly, I can see how Amal could’ve gotten to that point in her life and not made a decision either way about kids, or could’ve been happy either way. I’m in my late 20s and while I lean toward not having children for a few different reasons, I think if I met the right person and they wanted kids, I would be open to it. I haven’t committed either way and don’t see a reason to make a definite decision on something I could feel differently about at some point.

    • Cas says:

      Yeah I get it too. I’m late 30s now and could still go either way. I’d be open to it with the right partner but I’m equally fine without.

  10. KMO says:

    Even if not IVF, some fertility treatment could have been involved given their ages, if they’d been trying unsuccessfully for several months. Doctors often start with ovulation induction drugs like clomid, which increases the risk of multiples (via ovulating more than one egg).

    • Ana170 says:

      People on here act like Amal is old. She was in her late 30s when she got pregnant. That’s not too old to get pregnant without fertility treatments.

  11. Aeren says:

    There is no way they found out they were having twins and the gender of each one in the same appointment.

    • Lyds says:

      Good point, detective! I actually completely blanked on that and I have two kids. It’s very rare not to detect two babies in previous ultrasounds.

  12. Gippy says:

    IVF twin mama here, but twins do increase with age. And like someone said Clomid or other drugs you can take to increases chances of pregnancy “naturally”, over 35 most OB’s will prescribe those after 6 months of trying. Given their ages they could’ve gone straight to IVF, did genetic testing & so when both implanted they knew the sexes. Also you can do genetic testing via bloodwork to find out the genders by 10 weeks maybe even earlier. I’m sure their twins are adorable, but with their jobs I understand the heightened security.

  13. Krystina says:

    I know several women who NEVER thought, contemplated or wanted to know anything about having kids until they were in their late 30’s.
    Let’s not reduce women down to their uteruses, regardless of who they are or who they marry.

  14. Elf says:

    I think he should be prepared for that, since her pregnancy wasn’t throughout natural ways. Sorry I don’t think he is ever genuine he seems always over the top