George Clooney Reveals the ‘Greatest Lesson’ He Learned About Marriage Amid 11th Wedding Anniversary

George Clooney has cracked the code to a happy, lasting marriage — and he’s not shy about giving wife Amal all the credit.

Just two days after the duo celebrated their 11th anniversary, the Hollywood icon revealed the key to their lasting love during an exclusive chat with People at the New York Film Festival on September 29.

“The greatest lesson I learned is to marry the right person, which I did,” he told the outlet. “And so, it has been nothing but an honor and a pleasure to be married to my wife.”

Clooney, 64, also shared that he and Amal, 47, celebrated the milestone with a dinner date.

The pair met in July 2013 at Clooney’s Lake Como home when Amal was passing through Italy with a mutual friend. In 2015, the actor confessed to Charlie Rose that he immediately knew Amal was the one — but after nearly two years of dating, the proposal didn’t go quite as planned.

“It was a disaster,” Clooney admitted during an October 2022 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, explaining that he had directed Amal to a drawer where the ring was hidden, but she was confused when she found it.

“She’s like, ‘There’s a ring in there’ — like somebody left a ring there years ago,'” he recalled. “And I’m like, on my knee.”

Despite the botched proposal, the pair got their happily ever after: In 2014, they tied the knot in a splashy, star-studded wedding in Venice, Italy, before welcoming twins Alexander and Ella, now 8, in 2017.

As Star recently reported, Amal is making sure to protect her relationship with George and their family bond by keeping a “phone basket” at the family’s English countryside home.

“It’s important to get that balance where you have time alone with your family and with your friends where people feel like you can have a safe and frank exchange,” she told Glamour.