Amal Clooney is the star of American Vogue's May cover [1], which is available on newsstands in NY and LA on April 17, and goes nationwide on April 24. Before then, the magazine has blessed everyone with a sneak peek of the gorgeous photos and accompanying interview with Nathan Heller.
In the spread, which features Amal showing off a stunning selection of chic looks [2], the multi-hyphenate — "a celebrated humanitarian, high-powered barrister, mother of twins, and fashion icon" — touches on everything, from the early days of her romance with husband George Clooney [3] to the global injustices that she works so hard to prevent [4] as a barrister. Of the former, George tells Vogue that he was immediately captivated by Amal, and couldn't help but gush.
"Of course she was beautiful," he said. "But I also thought she was fascinating, and I thought she was brilliant. Her life was incredibly exciting — the clients she was taking on and the superhuman work that she was doing. I was taken with her from the moment I saw her."
As if that wasn't enough to melt your heart, Amal's wide-ranging interview also includes some pretty sweet tidbits about her and George's 10-month-old twins [5], who they welcomed in June 2017 (apparently Alexander looks "exactly like George" while Ella is the spitting image of her mother). Read on to see more of her best quotes from the interview ahead!
- On the twins' first words [6]: "We've had some 'Mamas' and 'Dadas.' George was very careful to ensure that 'Mama' was the first word."
- On balancing motherhood with work: "Between six and eight in the morning we get to have them in our bed — I don't schedule any calls before eight. When I was nursing, it was much more complicated, because there are two. I had all manner of weird cushions and pillows and machines."
- On how she knew George was the one: "It felt like the most natural thing in the world. Before that experience, I always hoped there could be love that was overwhelming and didn't require any weighing or decision-making . . . It's the one thing in life that I think is the biggest determinant of happiness, and it's the thing you have the least control over. Are you going to meet this person? I was 35 when I met him. It wasn't obvious that it was going to happen for me. And I wasn't willing or excited about the idea of getting married or having a family in the absence of that."
![On the struggles she's faced throughout her career as a barrister: "I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it or other people made me question it."
On how she realised the kind of law she was meant to practice: "I cared more about the outcome of [pro bono criminal cases] than my paid cases. And that made me think, well, why am I not doing more of that kind of work?"
On Nadia Murad, the 25-year-old Iraqi refugee she invited into her home: "She's so eloquent. There are many cases where I think, 'Well, the reality is, politically, nothing will be done.' But there is actually no reason why nothing could be done on this case, where the perpetrators were confessing to the crime."
On the #MeToo movement: "I think because of the brave women who have come forward to tell their stories, the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation. We're in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and that's where we need to be."
On global justice: "The same things keep happening again, and that's the tragedy. We had genocide in Bosnia and then again in Rwanda. Somehow, the system has not evolved to a place where these atrocities are being prevented, nor are they even being properly addressed afterward . . . There's a lot of work still to be done."](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/25nhwbA9dmO58MxDoSNgohOg2cM/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/04/10/639/n/1922398/4c0bb7102f024991_Inside2/i/struggles-she-faced-throughout-her-career-barrister-I.jpg "On the struggles she's faced throughout her career as a barrister: \"I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it or other people made me question it.\"
On how she realised the kind of law she was meant to practice: \"I cared more about the outcome of [pro bono criminal cases] than my paid cases. And that made me think, well, why am I not doing more of that kind of work?\"
On Nadia Murad, the 25-year-old Iraqi refugee she invited into her home: \"She's so eloquent. There are many cases where I think, 'Well, the reality is, politically, nothing will be done.' But there is actually no reason why nothing could be done on this case, where the perpetrators were confessing to the crime.\"
On the #MeToo movement: \"I think because of the brave women who have come forward to tell their stories, the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation. We're in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and that's where we need to be.\"
On global justice: \"The same things keep happening again, and that's the tragedy. We had genocide in Bosnia and then again in Rwanda. Somehow, the system has not evolved to a place where these atrocities are being prevented, nor are they even being properly addressed afterward . . . There's a lot of work still to be done.\"")
- On the struggles she's faced throughout her career as a barrister: "I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it or other people made me question it."
- On how she realised the kind of law she was meant to practice: "I cared more about the outcome of [pro bono criminal cases] than my paid cases. And that made me think, well, why am I not doing more of that kind of work?"
- On Nadia Murad, the 25-year-old Iraqi refugee she invited into her home: "She's so eloquent. There are many cases where I think, 'Well, the reality is, politically, nothing will be done.' But there is actually no reason why nothing could be done on this case, where the perpetrators were confessing to the crime."
- On the #MeToo movement: "I think because of the brave women who have come forward to tell their stories, the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation. We're in a situation where a predator feels less safe and a professional woman feels more safe, and that's where we need to be."
- On global justice: "The same things keep happening again, and that's the tragedy. We had genocide in Bosnia and then again in Rwanda. Somehow, the system has not evolved to a place where these atrocities are being prevented, nor are they even being properly addressed afterward . . . There's a lot of work still to be done."