George Clooney’s Advice to Amal on Embracing Aging as He Turns 60

George Clooney has revealed what he told his wife, Amal Clooney, when he turned 60. In a 2025 interview, the award-winning actor opened up about being able to “do pretty much everything” and “jamming in” what they can.  

George Clooney on getting older: ‘I can still do pretty much everything’

In a February 2025 New York Times interview, George, 63, revealed what he told his 47-year-old human rights lawyer wife when he turned 60. “I had this conversation with Amal when I turned 60,” he told the outlet. “I said, ‘Look, I can still play full-court basketball, I can still run around, I can still do pretty much everything I did when I was 30.’” 

Another three decades years though, he explained, and things could be different. “‘But in 30 years, I’m 90,’” he recalled telling her. “‘That’s a real number. My dad just hit that. And there are some things you’re not doing no matter how many granola bars you eat.’” 

“‘We have to focus on the next 20, 25 years of making sure that we’re jamming in everything we can,’” he added. “‘Not just work, because no one at the end of their life goes, ‘God, I wish I worked more.’”

George thought he didn’t have ‘a chance’ with Amal because of their age difference

Elsewhere in the interview, George shared that he originally thought his and Amal’s 17-year age difference would be a deal breaker. “I didn’t really think I’d have much of a chance with her,” he told the publication, “because I was 17 years older, and she seemed to have everything she needed.”

These days, the actor-producer-director isn’t sweating the small stuff. “There’s a thing about finding the person that you needed to find, particularly at a certain age, and everything from then on is easy,” he said. 

“We renovated our house,” George continued. “Amal would go, ‘I want to paint this wall yellow.’ Well, if I was 27 years old and doing construction work, I would’ve been like, ‘Well, that’s a stupid color.’ But the truth of the matter is that at 60, you just go, ‘OK.’ There are so many things that would have caused friction that don’t.”

How George and Amal Clooney met

The Ocean’s 11 star has discussed his and Amal’s romance many times since they first met in 2013. It all started in July 2013 when a friend of his asked if they could bring a friend to the actor’s home near Lake Como, Italy. 

As George later told David Letterman on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, he and Amal “stayed up all night talking” before eventually exchanging email addresses. (She was going to email him photos of his parents, who were also in Italy at the time.) George, though, wasn’t sure they’d go on a date because he thought they were “buddies.” 

Meanwhile, earlier that day, before Amal and others went to George’s Italian villa for dinner, his agent said he was about to meet the woman he’d marry. “I got a call from my agent who said, ‘I met this woman who is coming to your house, who you’re going to marry,’” George recalled. “It really worked out that way.”

By October of that year, George and Amal went out to dinner on their first date, which he later described as “a good first date,” per Elle. By February 2014, the Wolfs star knew that he wanted to propose to Amal. In April 2014, they got engaged, before getting married in Venice, Italy, five months later. 

In June 2017, George and Amal welcomed their now-7-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander. Today, the family calls the south of France home.