It’s hard to believe that it has been a year and a half since George ClooneymarriedAmal Alamuddin in Venice, Italy—putting an elegant canal-side end to his storied bachelor years. But eighteen months have lapsed, and despite the very busy careers of Mr. and Mrs. Clooney—which span international law, political activism, and filmmaking, and take both spouses around the globe on a regular basis—marriage seems to be going swimmingly. In a new interview, the Oscar winner even reveals some of his secrets to a strong first year and change of wedded bliss.
“We have a rule whereby we are never apart for more than a week,” the filmmaker tells Hello!(via Us Weekly). “We also stay in touch via social media, so we try to keep close even if we’re in different parts of the world.”
(We presume that Clooney is referring to video-chat services but may we take a moment to imagine Clooney chuckling while crafting bunny-eared Snapchats for Amal while sitting in traffic.)
Fortunately, the globe-trotting couple has homes in various corners of the world. And Clooney reveals that each of their houses has their perks for the couple.
“We have a place in London now where it’s easy for us to spend a lot of time together and I can work on new film projects—writing, reading scripts,” Clooney says, presumably referring to the country home 50 miles outside of London that is reportedly decked out with a spa and theater and is where the couple spent their honeymoon. “Or we can go to Lake Como,” the star adds, of his longtime tranquil Italian retreat (photographed here).
When neither London nor Lake Como will do, Clooney explains that the couple can “spend time in Los Angeles.” Of course, that home base is more of Clooney’s, as the filmmaker explains that they hole up there “when I need to have meetings for my acting work, or hang around with some of my friends.”
“It takes some planning, but it’s actually been working out very well for us,” Clooney says, adding that mister and missus have a strurdy marital foundation. “We have a very strong connection and she’s an extraordinary woman doing great work. . .We’re both committed and share a common concern for causes like the refugee crisis, but what really brings us together as a couple is the fact that we’re good friends and we enjoy each other’s company.”
Last month, Clooney revealed how he proposed to his lawyer love interest. The two were at home—although which one, we’re not sure—after he’d cooked a nice dinner, started playing his aunt Rosemary Clooney’s song “Why Shouldn’t I,” and hidden the engagement ring in a place where she would find undoubtedly find it.
Alas, his plans went awry when, “Amal got up to do the dishes. Which she’s never done,” Clooney said. When she finally returned from the kitchen, she discovered the ring but didn’t quite realize what was happening. “She looks at it and she’s like, ‘It’s a ring’—like as if somebody had left it there some other time.” The whole bungled proposal lasted about 25 minutes, Clooney said, before he ended up just plead[ing] mercy—“I need an answer. I’m 52 and I could throw out my hip pretty soon.”
Last September, the couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary—reportedly by having a low-key dinner at the Sunset Tower Hotel’s Tower Bar in West Hollywood. Although the 10 P.M. meal was “quiet,” the source who phoned in the report added that both were in celebratory moods, sipping champagne and decked out in appropriately glamorous movie-star finery. Not that we would expect anything less from Mr. and Mrs. Clooney.
