George Clooney explains how his proposal to Amal went wrong

George Clooney's proposal to Amal took 25 minutes and turns out was NOT as romantic as you think...

George and Amal Red Carpet
George and Amal Red Carpet

George Clooney's proposal to Amal took 25 minutes and turns out was NOT as romantic as you think...

George and Amal Clooney are new parents to Alexander and Ella, with their family growing by two this year, but despite having their hands full, these two still give us couple goals like no other.

George, who never misses a chance to talk about his wife, praising her mum skills by comparing her to an Olympic athlete last month, has actually opened up about how he proposed to Amal way back when and it wasn't as romantic as we thought. In fact, it turns out it took 25 minutes for her to answer.

While appearing on The Ellen Show to promote Hail, Caesar! last year, the actor quickly got on the topic of his wife, barrister and all-around badass Amal Clooney, who he married in 2014.

Going into a surprising level of detail about the engagement, George described the entire night as 'one of those horrible moments'.

'We didn’t talk about it. It wasn't like, "Oh, maybe we should get married or anything." I plotted the whole thing out. I had the ring hidden behind her. I had music playing, my Aunt Rosemary's gonna sing 'Why Shouldn't I?' on a playlist. Everything was planned out. I cooked dinner...'

The actor said he had planned to propose after dinner, but when Amal went up to do the dishes - 'Which she never does' - things started to go wrong.

'I blew out the candle, and I said to her "I think the lighter is in the box behind you", so she turns around, pulls out the box - I've got the ring in there - she pulls it out, looks at it and says "It's a ring".

Suffice to say, not the reaction George was hoping for.

Not to be deterred, however, George went ahead, got down on one knee and popped the question. And though we know Amal's answer, apparently it took 25 minutes for her to respond.

'We know from the playlist how long it took, eventually I said, I need an answer I'm 52, I'm going to pop a hip.'

And the rest, as you know, is history. George even described when he knew Amal was the one, saying it took only 'six months' for him to think about marriage, but 'From the minute we met, we just hit it off.'

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.