The exodus from Hollywood to shores not presided over by Donald Trump has been busy and loud. Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Wright and Courtney Love moved to England; Rosie O’Donnell opted for Ireland; Eva Longoria, Spain. Other Trump critics, including Richard Gere, Lena Dunham and Ryan Gosling, have upped sticks without citing the re-election as a motivating factor.
In the case of Clooney, however, there has appeared little doubt that his decision to gain French citizenship was primarily because of Trump, whose re-election he energetically campaigned against. Yet amid the heat and headlines generated by the pair’s war of words, some of the actor’s reasons for relocating may have flown under the radar.
‘He’ll become an ambassador for the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée’
The Clooneys’ 170-hectare (420-acre) Provence estate, capped by an 18th-century chateau, encompasses a swimming pool, ornamental lake, lavender garden, boules pitch and olive grove. It also includes a 20-acre vineyard, planted 25 years ago by agronomist Laurence Berlemont, whose previous clients include Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at Château Miraval, just 30 minutes away. Under Berlemont’s steering, the wines of Miraval have become lucrative and celebrated, with healthy international sales and rosettes from Le Guide Hachette des Vins.
Even closer to the Clooneys is George Lucas’s Château Margüi – AKA Skywalker Vineyards – a substantial wine and olive oil making enterprise (plus high-end holiday lets). Also nearby is Le Plan-de-la-Tour, the estate formerly owned by Johnny Depp, featuring vineyards, olive groves, and a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed wine cave. The estates of celebrity vintners such as Kylie Minogue, John Malkovich and Jon Bon Jovi are also in the area.
Historically, the fruits of the vines at the estate now owned by the Clooneys have been fed into the local cooperative, but the president of the Coteaux Varois appellation syndicate appeared eager for the incomers to “exploit the vineyard”.
“In buying in our region,” said Eric Lambert, “[Clooney] will certainly become a new ambassador for the AOC [Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée].” Meanwhile, Berlemont has said Clooney joined her for blending sessions, and praised his “good palate”. “He’s very humble,” she added, “ready to listen”.
There were even murmurings in the wine press that the Clooneys would debut a rosé and a white as early as 2025. That has not come to pass, yet Clooney is no stranger to alcoholic entrepreneurship: in 2017 he sold Casamigos – the tequila brand he co-founded four years earlier – for $1bn (£790m).
‘I don’t want my kids to be worried about paparazzi’
Both Lucas and Jolie-Pitt’s wines have benefited from high-profile partnerships with the nearby Cannes film festival. Yet Clooney’s association with European film festivals has been predominantly with Cannes’ rival in Venice. At least 10 of his films, including Jay Kelly last August, Wolfs the year before and his own directorial efforts – Suburbicon (2017), The Ides of March (2011) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) – have premiered on the Lido; he has only been to Cannes twice.
Clooney’s affection for Italy has been long and mutual. In 2002, he bought a villa on Lake Como, and he and his wife, Amal Clooney, the British-Lebanese human rights barrister married in Venice in 2014. A 2012 profile of the actor noted that he was “fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy … despite [being a man] who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.”
So why did the Clooneys not seek Italian citizenship? A clue may lie in the actor’s praise for France’s privacy laws. In an interview with Esquire in October, Clooney said: “I was worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
Italian rules over publishing photographs of people in public without their consent have strengthened over the past decade, and are tighter than those in the US. Yet France’s are nonetheless more stringent, and the climate surrounding celebrity less excitable, especially in rural areas. Meanwhile, the secluded location of the Clooneys’ French estate acts a significant deterrent to those hoping for a photo. By contrast, anyone with a rowing boat can in theory gain a commanding view of the villas overlooking Lake Como.
‘Significant consequences … including suspension of entry into the US’
Others have questioned why Clooney did not apply for British citizenship, given that he and Amal have family there, as well as a house in Windsor since 2014. Amal also has chambers in London and two fellowships at Oxford – not the easiest commute from rural Provence.
Yet it is her involvement on a 2024 advisory panel reviewing the international criminal court investigation into potential war crimes in Gaza that offers the strongest indication as to why the couple felt it imperative to relocate their family from Los Angeles.
In April 2024, Clooney and her fellow panellists recommended that the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan issue an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant. In her statement, Clooney said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that they had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A warrant was issued in November 2024, and the following February, Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC and naming Khan in its annexe, promising to “impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members”.
Last April, Amal was among a number of senior legal counsels to the ICC warned by the Foreign Office that they could be at risk of sanctions by the Trump administration, including being banned from entering the US.
Much has been made of the need for the Clooneys to fast-track their French citizenship application before tougher requirements over language fluency are brought in at the start of 2026 (George’s French reportedly remains rusty). Yet the prospect of the whole family being unable to re-enter the US also seems likely to have hastened their exit.
