Never Say Never: A Look Back at George Clooney's Infamous Quotes About Marriage
With George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin's nuptials days away, it should serve as a reminder to some that the good ol' "never say never" slogan often holds true.
Clooney, 53, has been Hollywood's most notorious bachelor for the past 21 years until he fell head over heels for the British-Lebanese human rights lawyer. But in case you forgot, he was married once before to Talia Balsam, from 1989 to 1993. Shortly after divorcing the actress, Clooney uttered a phrase that would come back to haunt him in countless interviews: "I won't marry again."
It all happened in a November 1995 interview with Barbara Walters.
"How do you know you won't marry again?" Walters asked.
"Because I wasn't very good at it," he replied. This would end up being George's mantra.
For the next nearly two decades, Clooney was in a handful of year-plus relationships, with none quite sticking. His single status became notorious, but that didn't stop the "do you ever want to get married?" questions from coming his way.
Take a look at how George addressed the issue over the past several years.
December 1996:
One year after Clooney gave his infamous marriage quote, the actor opened up more about his emotions before and after he wed Balsam.
"I'd gotten out of one relationship that wasn’t going very well and married the one girl that I truly loved and had loved for years," he told Vanity Fair. The loved woman in question was Balsam in 1984, who co-starred with him in a local play. Much to the actor's dismay, they eventually split before reconciling years later, which is when Clooney proposed. After barely three years of marriage, their relationship was in trouble.
"It was a very tough time," he said, "and in the middle of it all I had a bleeding ulcer and I was really sick.
"I probably — definitely — wasn’t someone who should have been married at that point," he continued. "I just don’t feel like I gave Talia a fair shot. I was responsible for the failure of that marriage." George also talked about how their separation started off amicably, but got messy once lawyers were involved.
"I would say to Talia, 'You tell me how much — what you think is fair. I'll write the check. I won't negotiate.' Instead, I paid $80,000 in lawyers' fees. And that makes me crazy."
November 2006: Ten years later, it was clearly time to check back in on Clooney's marital views. The actor was asked about his vow to "never marry again" — and whether he had changed his mind.
"Marriage? Who knows? I've been married. It's not something I'm looking out for," Clooney told People when named the Sexiest Man Alive. "Things could always change, but it's not a consideration right now. The truth is I'm really happy. The things that are a drag in my life are so outweighed by the things that are great. I have families that I spend my days with, and friends I spend my days with, and people I care very much about. I get to do what almost no one gets to do. My life's really good."
[Related: Whatever Happened to George Clooney's Exes?]
July 2008: George explained that picking work over relationships is likely why he wouldn't find a life partner.
"I don't expect to ever get married again or have children,” he revealed to the British newspaper Sunday People. “I am never at home and every woman gets sick of it. If I was them, I would never put up with me for long, and they don't."
While it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to break up with George Clooney, apparently, it has happened.
"I do begin to wonder, ‘Am I going to be relegated to these three-year relationships for the rest of my life?’ My trouble is that I keep on taking jobs, and jobs take me further away from home,” he continued. “What I really have is work. I like being on a film set, freezing my ass off, or whatever."
January 2011: Even Clooney's dad has found himself in the hot seat regarding his son's marriage-phobic attitude.
When George and his father, Nick, sat down with Piers Morgan, the talk show host pointed out that the elder Clooney had "one of the great marriages." (Nick Clooney has been married to George's mother, Nina, for more than 50 years!) Morgan went on to ask whether, as a parent, Nick was "yearning for the moment" his son would tie the knot.
Nick turned to his son and said, "I want you to think about that. I want you to think about — we've been married — Nina and I've been married 51 years."
"I hate to blow your whole news story," George replied, "but I was married, so I gave it a shot." He recycled his usual line, saying the "shot" he gave marriage ought to have "proven how good I was at it."
November 2011: By this point, the actor was clearly sick of discussing his bachelor status. "I answered that question in 1997, having recently been divorced, and I really haven't addressed it since," the actor told Rolling Stone. "It's one of those things, like many things in my life, that get picked up and repeated and are made to seem like new news."
December 2011: While penning an essay for Esquire, Clooney willingly brought up the topic of marriage himself.
"People forget that I was married. I love that, Will he get married? I don't talk about it because I don't think about it. I don't ever question other peoples' versions of how they live their lives or what they do," he wrote. "I understand that it's a subject of interest for people. But sometimes it exists only because it came up years ago. It becomes this conversation piece that constantly resurfaces.
"Everybody sort of has their own versions of what they think I am and what they think that is. I'm just living my life and doing the best I can," he continued. "The rest of those versions, there's not much I can do about. No matter what I do, I'm somehow upsetting someone in some way or making somebody happy. I can only live my own life and my version of it."
February 2012: Clearly getting tired of repeating himself, George gave a simple answer during a sit down with The Hollywood Reporter when the M-word was brought up: "I don't even think about it, really."
December 2013: Whether George was just friends with Amal at the time, or playing coy, the actor was asked by Esquire whether he was surprised to be single again at his age.
"I am surprised, yeah. But I’m surprised by almost everything that’s happened in my life," he said. "I’m surprised I don’t live in Kentucky and sell insurance, too. I mean, I really am.”
So why isn’t he married with kids?
“I haven’t had aspirations in that way, ever. I was married in 1989. I wasn’t very good at it. I was quoted as saying I’ll never get married again pretty much right after I got divorced and then I’ve never talked about it since," he stated.
July 2014: The next time George addressed his relationship status, he had completely changed his tune. After news of his engagement broke in April, the actor spoke out about it for the first time in July.
[Related: Inside George and Amal's All-Star Engagement Dinner]
"I'm marrying up," he told Variety.
Turns out George is the marrying kind after all.