Actor George Clooney once gifted his 14 best friends $1 million each.
Clooney opened up about his decision to gift his friends the money in an interview published Tuesday by GQ magazine. Clooney was named the magazine’s Icon of the Year.
Why George Clooney gifted his 14 best friends $1 million each https://t.co/oygYSNvv8p pic.twitter.com/64y9Eb7wdx
— New York Post (@nypost) November 17, 2020
Clooney’s friend Rande Gerber originally went on MSNBC and talked about Clooney gifting his friends the money in a suitcase, but the actor never confirmed nor denied it. However, Clooney has now decided to tell the story. (RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell Reportedly Bragged About Allegedly Giving George Clooney Oral Sex)
“…I thought, what I do have are these guys who’ve all, over a period of 35 years, helped me in one way or another,” Clooney recalled. “I’ve slept on their couches when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years. We’re all good friends. And I thought, you know, without them I don’t have any of this. And we’re all really close, and I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they’re all in the will. So why the fuck am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”
Clooney found a place in Los Angeles that would give him $14 million in cash and gathered all of his closest friends.
“And I just held up a map and I just pointed to all the places I got to go in the world and all the things I’ve gotten to see because of them,” Clooney said. “And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?'”
Clooney is the kind of friend we all need. He gave $1 million each to his closest friends at a time when he didn’t really have a ton of money. Clooney was definitely rich at the time, but not at the level he is now. He probably didn’t have to sacrifice much, but he had to sacrifice a little maybe.
I just hope we are all blessed to be surrounded by friends like this even if it isn’t on this scale.