Actor turned left-wing activist George Clooney and his family have taken French citizenship, a publicly available government decree confirmed.
Le Monde reported on Monday that Lexington, Kentucky-born Clooney, his wife, British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, and twin children Ella and Alexander were all granted French citizenship this month as per the contents of a naturalization decree published by the Official Journal of the French Republic on Saturday, December 27.
The decree, which can be accessed and downloaded online from a French government website upon passing a simple mathematical security check, lists the Clooney family among several dozen others individuals naturalized by the same decree.
Le Monde noted that the decree confirms Clooney’s plans and his praise of France’s privacy laws that “keep his family shielded from paparazzi”
“I love the French culture, your language, even if I’m still bad at it after 400 days of courses,” Clooney reportedly told RTL radio in December. “Here, they don’t take photos of kids. There aren’t any paparazzi hidden at the school gates. That’s number one for us.”
George Clooney and his wife, British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Clooney, pose as they arrive for the 42nd edition of the Cesar Ceremony at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on February 24, 2017. (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking to Esquire magazine in October, Clooney bashed Los Angeles’ culture, and stressed that living on a farm in France was better for his wife and twin children.
“We live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid” Clooney said, “I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for [the twins], it’s like, they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grownups and have to take their dishes in.”
“France—they kind of don’t give a shit about fame. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids,” he insisted at another part of the interview.
Le Monde, and other international outlets reported on Monday that Clooney purchased a former wine estate in southern France in 2021 called the “Domaine du Canadel,” located near the village of Brignoles. The actor also reportedly owns an estate in Italy’s Lake Como region, a historic manor in England, an apartment in New York, and a property in Kentucky.
Previously owned properties in Los Angeles and Mexico were sold by the Clooneys over the past decade.
According to Le Monde, Hollywood director Jim Jarmusch told France Inter Radio last week that he is planning to apply for French nationality, as he is “attracted” to French culture and “would like a place that will allow me to escape from the United States.”
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