George Clooney recalls being 'terrified' after learning he was having twins: 'That wasn’t part of the plan'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 17: Amal Clooney and George Clooney arrives at the Premiere Of Universal Pictures'
George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney are parents of 5-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella. (Photo: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic) (Steve Granitz via Getty Images)

George Clooney is looking back on one of the most memorable moments of his life.

The actor, 61, was known for years as one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors until he married Amal, now 44, in 2014. In a joyful interview with Drew Barrymore, the Ticket to Paradise star opened up about the night the couple first met — as well as the day, years later, when they found out they were having twins.

"That wasn’t part of the plan," Clooney told Barrymore when recounting the moment their doctor told them they weren't having just one baby, but two.

"You do [an ultrasound] at 12 weeks where they go, 'There’s the kid, look at the picture of the kid,' and I was like, 'Yeah there it is,'" he remembered. "He goes, 'It’s a boy.' It’s a boy! And then he goes, 'And a girl,' and I was like, what? It was such a disaster. I was like, are you kidding me? Now it’s the greatest thing in the world, [but] I was terrified then."

"I was 56 years old and that just sounded terrifying to me," he explained.

The Clooney twins, Alexander and Ella, 5, are happy and healthy now, but even still, the actor says he thinks about his future as an older dad.

"When I was very young, 20, I would hear someone died at 60 and I’d think, 'Well, they lived a good life," he joked.

The actor couldn't help but gush when remembering the first night he met Amal.

"We stayed up all night talking and then I started writing her a bunch of letters," he recalled of the night she came with a friend to a dinner party he was throwing at his home in Lake Como, Italy.

"We still write letters," he added. "We leave them on the pillow." When asked about how he popped the question, Clooney said it was a hilarious "disaster."

"I planned the whole thing out," he recounts of the night. "I’ve got like a playlist with my aunt [Rosemary Clooney] singing… and I'm gonna give her the ring right at the song 'Why Shouldn't I?'"

"We'd only been dating for like six months," he says. "I got the ring in the box. We'd been having dinner and the song starts and I go, 'You know, I think there's a lighter [to relight the candle] in that little box, and she pulls the little thing out from the drawer, and there's a little diamond ring in it. She goes, 'There's a ring in there!' like somebody left a ring years ago. And I'm on my knee."

Clooney recalled it took Amal a little extra time to realize it was a proposal.

"She doesn't say yes until this horrible song called 'Goody Goody' [starts playing], which was supposed to be later, like, when we were dancing," he said. "She's just sitting there going, 'Oh my god, oh my god.'"

"I literally said, 'Listen, I really would like to marry you but I also am not young and I've been on my knee now — and I could, like, lose a hip!'" he jokes. "Then she goes, 'Oh, yes.' And she said yes, thank god."

The dad loves discussing his romance with Amal and their future together as parents, specifically as an older parent. In a recent interview with Today's Hoda Kotb, the actor had some quick one-liners about the topic.

"I kind of like the idea of being sort of out of it when my daughter starts to date," he quipped with Kotb, 58, who is also the mother of two young daughters: Haley, 5, and Hope, 3.

In the same interview, he mimicked a confused, older version of himself responding to his daughter bringing home a date: "Papa I want you to meet ... he's a drummer in a band. 'Huh? I like toast,'" he joked. "I'm OK."

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