George Clooney Confirms Legendary Story That He Gave 14 Of His Closest Friends $1M Each

George Clooney in a suit
(Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

You have acquaintances. You have the people you keep in touch with, but not often. You have people you only talk to because you both have dogs and always run into each other on walks. You have friends you might go grab drinks with (if stuff was open). You have best friends. Lifelong friends.

And then, you have the George Clooney level of friendship.

In a new interview with GQ, Clooney just confirmed the story which was first shared back in 2017 – that George Clooney gave his 14 closest friends $1,000,000 EACH.

In 2017, George’s good friend and business partner Rande Gerber told the story to MSNBC. People didn’t know what to make of it. Was it just one of these celebrity stories nobody would ever verify, or did it really happen?

This one did really happen.

George said, “I was a single guy. All of us were aging. I was 52 or something. And most of my friends are older than me.”

“And 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. 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 is worth about $500M, by the way. That Casamigos Tequila money…

Next, he found a place in LA that could get him that amount of cash, got a van and put “Florist” on it, went and got the cash, had security guys, got 14 pieces of Tumi luggage, filmed them with $1M in cash, and got ready to surprise his buddies.

I know – if you’re a fan of the Ocean’s movies, it almost sounds like the beginning of a new film.

Then, he had all them come over, and dropped the news on them.

“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. And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?’ And the fun part about it was: That was the 27th, the 28th of September. A year later, on the 27th of September, just by happenstance, was the day I got married.”

Guys named George who are legends, and love tequila:

Strait.

Clooney.

What a story.

While we’re at it, let’s have King George sing about tequila.

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