{"id":384878,"date":"2026-01-01T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384878\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T14:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:39:14","slug":"french-government-defends-granting-citizenship-to-george-and-amal-clooney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384878\/","title":{"rendered":"French government defends granting citizenship to George and Amal Clooney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor George Clooney<\/a> and his wife Amal Clooney<\/a> were granted French citizenship<\/a> because \u201cthey contribute, through their distinguished actions, to France<\/a>\u2019s international influence and cultural outreach,\u201d the French government said Wednesday, defending their naturalisation that was questioned by a junior French minister.<\/p>\n

The naturalisations of the American-born star of the Ocean\u2019s series of heist movies, his wife and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, and their twins Ella and Alexander were announced last weekend in the Journal Officiel, where French government decrees are published.<\/p>\n

Amal and George Clooney are now French citizens. (WireImage)<\/p>\n

Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a junior minister at the Interior Ministry, expressed misgivings on Wednesday that some of the Clooneys’ new French compatriots may think the star couple was granted special treatment.<\/p>\n

The actor speaks only what he himself says is \u201chorrible, horrible” French.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message being sent is not good,\u201d Vedrenne said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an issue of fairness that, in my eyes, is absolutely essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

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READ MORE: \ufeffRichard Branson holds celebration of life for late wife<\/a><\/p>\n

The couple purchased an estate in France in 2021 and Clooney has said that it’s their primary residence.<\/p>\n

Non-French residents of France have multiple possible routes to becoming naturalised.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear whether the 64-year-old actor retained his American citizenship. His 47-year-old wife was born in Lebanon and raised in the UK, and naturalised by France under her maiden name, Amal Alamuddin. The eight-year-old twins<\/a> were born in London.<\/p>\n

France allows the Clooneys’ children privacy, George has said. (Samir Hussein\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry said the Clooneys were eligible for citizenship under a French law that allows for the naturalisation of foreign nationals who contribute to France’s international influence and economic well-being.<\/p>\n

It argued that France’s cinema industry will benefit from the actor’s clout as a global movie star and said that, as a lawyer, Amal Clooney regularly works with academic institutions and international organizations in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey maintain strong personal, professional and family ties with our country,” the ministry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many French citizens, we are delighted to welcome Georges and Amal Clooney into the national community,” it concluded, giving the actor’s first name a French twist by adding the \u201cs\u201d at the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrity couples who have been together for a really long time<\/p>\n

The decision was also defended by Vedrenne’s superior at the Interior Ministry, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who said he signed the naturalisation decree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a big chance for our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In recent media interviews when he was promoting Jay Kelly, Clooney said that he is trying to teach himself French using a language-learning app. He said his wife and children speak the language perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey speak French in front of me so that they can say terrible things about me to my face and I don\u2019t know,\u201d he joked, speaking to French broadcaster Canal+.<\/p>\n

French media have reported the Clooneys live part-time in their luxury 18th-century villa outside the town of Brignoles in southern France, where they can keep a lower profile and their children are protected from unauthorised photographs by French privacy laws.<\/p>\n

\"VENICE,George and Amal looked as in love as ever at the Venice Film festival premiere of his film Jay Kelly. (Getty)<\/p>\n

In an interview with Esquire in October, Clooney said: \u201cI was worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don\u2019t want them being compared to somebody else\u2019s famous kids,” he said.<\/p>\n

Growing up away from the spotlight in France, \u201cthey have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE<\/a>: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney were granted French citizenship because \u201cthey contribute, through their distinguished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-384878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}