Mission Possible

She’s the lawyer taking on ISIS and championing human rights, and she’s married to George Clooney to boot. Amal Clooney talks motherhood, marriage and calling the UN to account 

- Julia Braybrook

 She’s married to an A-list actor. A mum to twins. A regular on the best dressed lists. Tall, beautiful with enviable hair. And thankfully, that’s not what the world most admires about Amal Clooney. When it comes to inspiration, Amal leads the charge, with her current battle against no less than ISIS. It’s no wonder the world can’t get enough of the woman who was once a refugee, and now fights for those who can’t fight for themselves.

“Amal has caught the world’s attention not just because she captured the seemingly uncatchable George Clooney,” says Bergdorf Goodman fashion director Linda Fargo. “And not just because of what she chooses to wear, but because underneath the clothes, we admire her intelligence, activism, globalism, and her clear confidence in her own skin.”

And as for Amal herself, she says, “I hate the idea that you somehow, as a human being, have to be put in a box. There’s no reason why lawyers can’t be fun – or actresses can’t be serious.”

The 40-year-old lawyer was catapulted into the spotlight in September 2014 when she married actor George Clooney in Venice in a dress designed by the late Oscar de la Renta with a reception attended by Hollywood’s elite. But their first meeting was low-key.

The pair met at George’s villa in Lake Como, Italy in July 2013, when the then-Amal Alamuddin was passing through on her way to Cannes with a mutual friend. George told David Letterman that “it’s the wildest thing… I got a call from my agent who said, ‘I met this woman who’s coming to your house who you’re gonna marry’.”