Mindsnack
7 Facts About George Clooney’s Wife
Swarajya Staff
Sep 29, 2014, 11:21 PM | Updated Feb 19, 2016, 06:38 PM IST
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Yes, we are a site that provides serious thoughtful content based on Reason.
Therefore, it is only fair that we help millions of women (and possibly men too) in dealing with their trauma. The world’s most eligible bachelor George Clooney got married in Venice yesterday. This, after he had claimed that he would never marry again after his first marriage with actress Talia Balsam broke up in 1993 (they were marred for four years). So, who is Amal Alamuddin?
1. She is a lawyer
36-year-old Amal Ramzi Alamuddin is a London-based British-Lebanese lawyer, activist, and author. She specializes in international law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition.
2. She is a top lawyer
Her CV in her chosen career looks as good as Clooney’s in his. She graduated in law from Oxford, got her masters from New York University, and started her career with the Criminal Defense and Investigations Group at the super-elite New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, whose alumni include former US Secretary of State and Cold Warrior John Foster Dulles and Peter Thiel, Paypal co-founder and the first outside investor in Facebook.
She has worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She has been member of a number of United Nations commissions including as adviser to Special Envoy Kofi Annan on Syria and as Counsel to the 2013 Inquiry by the UN human into the use of drones in counter-terrorism operations.
She has been involved in high-profile cases representing the state of Cambodia, and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. She is a member of the multidisciplinary Team of Experts established by the UK Foreign Office as part of the global Preventing Sexual Violence In Conflict Initiative. In August 2014, Alamuddin was selected for the UN’s three-member commission to look into possible violations of the rules of war in Gaza during the Israel-Gaza conflict, but said she was unable to accept the position.
3. She was as eligible as Clooney
Last year, before her relationship with Clooney became public, London legal blog Your Barrister Boyfriend ranked “The 21 Hottest Barristers in London”. Alamuddin was at the top. She “achieves the seemingly unattainable ideal of contemporary femininity: she is both breathtakingly beautiful and formidably successful,” the rankers said.
4. She comes from a highly esteemed Lebanese family
Amal’s mother, Baria, is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK and has interviewed the likes of Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and Fidel Castro. Her grandfather was a government minister. Her father was a professor of business studies. The family moved to London when Amal was two years old. Her father is a Shia Muslim, while her mother is Sunni.
5.She is very private on social media
Her Facebook page reveals nothing! And she has shut down her Twitter account.
6. Their romance took them all over the world
The ever-alert newshounds of People magazine have tracked down the various trysts between Clooney and Alamuddin.
However, to help time-challenged readers, we also provide an infographic detailing their romance (Courtesy: people.com)
7. George Clooney on love, marriage and women
He had a bet with Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer, both of whom put $10,000 on him being married and a father by 40. Kidman actually sent him the cheque on his birthday. Clooney returned it offering her double or quits on his 50th. He is now 53.
But, in an interview with The Guardian in 2002, he said: “My worst nightmare is being one of those old Lotharios. I was in a bar a month ago with my friend Waldo and I looked over to him at one point and said, “You know we’ve become those 40-year-old guys that we used to look at and say, ‘Isn’t it sad?’ Don’t let me be that guy.”
Asked what he finds attractive in a woman, he said, in 2006: “Everybody says this, but I’d bet sense of humor is no. 1 for me. It’s certainly what’s most attractive and the first thing you notice about someone. It’s not the first thing you notice at 21, but it’s the first thing you notice now. You also have to have a sense of humor about my life. It certainly has had an effect on relationships, but I would bet less effect than my own issues or insecurities. You can’t really blame outside forces for things not working out. You have to take some responsibility.”
On dating, he has said: “It’s not that I lead this oblivious life where I think I’ve got such a great personality that people want to spend time with me. If someone has a poster of you or asks for your autograph, clearly you can’t take them out on a date. It’s not that interesting if someone is just interested in you.”
In 2013, he told W magazine: “When I was a kid, I was in love with Audrey Hepburn. I watched Roman Holiday when I was 11, and I thought she was as elegant as anything I’d ever seen. And I fell madly in love with her. I also always loved Grace Kelly. I mean, when she comes out of the water in To Catch a Thief, I thought, ‘That’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.’ “
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