Clooney pointed out that his wife’s work as an international and human rights lawyer could put their children at risk of “real-world consequences”. He described his wife’s work as “confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups” and cautioned that preserving the anonymity of their children could help protect them from such groups.
He added that he and his wife had “never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy.”
Clooney accepted that his status as a public figure means that he is fair game for “oftentimes intrusive photos” but that his children had never made such a “commitment”.
Read Clooney’s open letter in full below:
An open letter to the Daily Mail and other publications.
“Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd’s 1 year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children’s faces in your publication. 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.
“We have never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would 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.
Thank you,
George Clooney
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