George Clooney is making it crystal clear his kids are off limits to the media.
The Hollywood star and philanthropist has penned an open letter addressed to “the Daily Mail and other publications” which has been shared by Deadline, calling on the outlets to put the safety of his children before profit:
“Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd’s 1-year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children’s faces in your publication,” he begins.
“I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment,” he continues before explaining Amal’s work as a human rights lawyer makes their situation particularly dangerous.
Advertisement
“The nature of my wife’s work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover.”
He adds that they have never sold photos of their children to the media nor are they on social media posting pictures of them “because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real world issues, with real world consequences.”
“We hope that you would agree the need to sell advertisement isn’t greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted. Thank you, George Clooney.”
Advertisement
George and Amal are the latest in a long line of celebrity couples to call out the media in regards to publishing photos of their children.
Earlier this year, Game of Thrones actress and mum Sophie Turner shared a blunt message to the paparazzi to stop photographing her daughter: “It’s f***ing creepy that grown, old men are taking pictures of a baby without permission,” she posted in her Insta stories.
A few weeks later, supermodel and new mum Gigi Hadid shared an open letter to the media asking them to, at the very least, blur out photos of her daughter and acknowledged the harmful practices of the photographers: “I can imagine that close or dramatic paparazzi frenzies must be overwhelming and disorienting…it still is as an adult that understands and deals with it often.”
A few weeks after that, Blake Lively pointed out how a number of pics were taken of her kids after they “were being stalked by men all day. Jumping out. And then hiding.”
“Where is your morality here? I would like to know. Or do you simply not care about the safety of children?” she asked the tabloid before urging them to “get with the times.”
And she’s right.
These publications need to get with the times.
The fact that Amal Clooney is a human rights lawyer, obviously gives for a compelling case, but that aside… isn’t it obvious that following a little kid around or hiding behind a bush or a wall or whatever it may be just to get a photo is plain wrong? That selling that photo to a publication without the parents’ permission is plain wrong? That the publication then going on to upload it for their millions of readers to see without the parents’ permission is also plain wrong?
That putting profit over child safety is always wrong?
(Feature Image Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage for Getty Images)