World

George and Amal Clooney welcome twins

05:45 am on 7 June 2017

Amal Clooney has given birth to twins - a girl and a boy called Ella and Alexander - the first children for the international human rights lawyer and her movie star husband George Clooney.

George and Amal Clooney at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. Photo: AFP

They were born on Tuesday morning, the actor's publicist Stan Rosenfield told the BBC.

He said: "Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine," before joking: "George is sedated and should recover in a few days."

The couple married in September 2014 in Venice, Italy.

The couple's friend, actor Matt Damon, revealed the news that Amal was pregnant with twins back in February.

He was speaking after the news of the couple's pregnancy was revealed by CBS's The Talk host Julie Chen.

Explaining how Clooney revealed the news, Damon said: "I was working with him last fall and he pulled me aside on set and I almost started crying.

"I was so happy for him. And I was like, 'How far along is she?' And he goes, 'Eight weeks'.

"I said, 'Are you out of your mind? Don't tell anybody else! Don't you know the 12-week rule?' Of course he doesn't. I was like, 'just shut up, man'."

Social media reaction has included comments about how "normal" the twins' names are.

"How refreshing that they picked normal classical names," wrote another.