George Clooney Urges Media Not to Publish Pics of His Children to Prevent Them From 'Being Targeted'
© AP Photo / Giuseppe Aresu, File
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Hollywood celebrity George Clooney has called upon the media to refrain from publishing photographs of his children, as it could put their lives at risk.
In an open letter addressed to The Daily Mail "and other publications", the Academy-award winning actor who has four-year-old twins, daughter Ella and son Alexander. with barrister wife Amal wrote:
“I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment. The nature of my wife's work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover.”
Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin) is a Lebanese-British barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in international law and human rights. She married the American actor in 2014.
Clooney explained that he was prompted to issue the open letter after seeing photographs of actress Billie Lourd's one-year-old baby boy, Kingston, published online. They had been subsequently taken down.
Lourd, best known for her appearance in American Horror Story, is the daughter of the late Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, and announced she and her fiancé Austen Rydell had welcomed the arrival of their first-born in September 2020. The actress had shared a photo of their son's feet on her verified Instagram account.
Amal and George Clooney arrive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala.
© AP Photo / Charles Sykes
George Clooney went on to emphasize the fact that neither he nor his wife were on social media, and had never sold a picture of their children, as it might “put their lives in jeopardy.”
“… Not paranoid jeopardy but real world issues, with real world consequences. We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisement isn't greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted,” appealed George Clooney.
There has not yet been any comment from The Daily Mail.
Clooney had a run-in with the outlet back in 2014, when it published a false story about his wife's mother, claiming she had objected to their marriage.
"The Mail knew the story... was false and printed it anyway," he wrote in a statement published by USA Today.
Clooney had slammed the paper as "the worst kind of tabloid. One that makes up its facts to the detriment of its readers."
Despite the fact that Mail Online apologised "for any distress caused" by its story, Clooney had thanked the outlet for the apology, yet added, "Not that I would ever accept it."
This comes as other celebrity parents, including Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, Mindy Kaling, Orlando Bloom and Blake Lively have all felt that their children’s privacy ought to be defended.
Blake Lively, who shares her three children with fellow star Ryan Reynolds, roasted Daily Mail AU in July 2021 for posting a paparazzi shot of her and her children in New York City, unblurred, and without her permission.
The Game of Thrones’ star Sophie Turner went on Instagram Stories to address the paparazzi after photos of her out with her 10-month-old daughter Willa Jones were published online.
