They are going to be gorgeous children!

Does it seem that a higher than average number of celebrities have twins?..saw a figure as of 2013 twin births occur 3 out of 100..seems higher with celebrities..

Thought so too..

IVF. Betcha it's going to be a boy and a girl, too.

Years ago before IVFs were common, I read that a 35 year old pregnant woman is most likely to have twins that year than any other year. I assume the ovaries are not as efficient and more often release 2 eggs at that age.

There is something 'off' with this couple and I can't figure out exactly what it is. That said, babies are a blessing. I hope these babies are healthy and happy and grow up up with lots of love.

Won't be easy for them with such famous parents. And with George so old, they'll be lucky if he lives to see them finish college.

Certainly will change their lifestyle.

I wondered about IVF as well - scheduled babies.

I suspect IVF as well, especially being they're twins. Common with IVF because more than one embryo is implanted in the hopes at least one will survive. Amal is 'nigh onto 40 years old so her fertility is failing. Yep, IVF.

Kessala

Not really a celebrity follower, but I suppose anyone would know these 2. I never understood what people saw in GC. I mean he's fine, but I never understood why he is a super celeb. I agree with all the comments though, guessing it's highly likely it is IVF and yes the kids will likely be attractive..... but I don't know that it will change their lifestyle. These people are used to having all kinds of help and I would expect more of the same.

George's parents are very much alive and kicking. Nick Clooney is familiar to many of us. He could live to see his grandchildren!

These people are used to having all kinds of help and I would expect more of the same.

^^^

I saw someone talking about changing diapers for twins and thought "Yeah, I'm sure George will be up to his elbows in doo doo".

Ha!

Sheilajoyce, it's funny I alway heard the opposite. That, as women age they release two as nature's way of assuring one will take.

I'm a fraternal twin. My mom was 37 at the time and 62 years ago, she was embarrassed! But luckily a wise friend told her, "Everyone will think you are much younger than you are!" This snapped her out of it!

Growing up, being a twin was unusual. Most understood identical twins, although those were rare too, but didn't understand the concept of fraternal twins.

Sheilaus, I'm with you about George Clooney. It's the same with Jennifer Aniston. Some stars get this allure, for whatever reason.

George is my age (55). I've always liked him, thought he'd be fun in real life but having kids at my age... no way!

I have mixed feeling about these rich celebs having babies so much later in life.

It's nice to have your parents around when you're an adult, too. Not to mention, giving them grands.

It's nice to have your parents around when you're an adult, too. Not to mention, giving them grands.

Yes, it's nice. But I'm sure you wouldn't tell an adult child of elderly parents, "You really shouldn't have been born."

George married late, Amal relatively so. Should they decide not to have children because they missed the optimum window?

She is 35, the same age I was when I had my third child. My husband was younger than George, but not a lot. (He was 48.) Yes, my son lost his father sooner than most, but this was after his dad's 10-year battle with dementia. There are no guarantees in life. If I've learned anything, it's that we have no idea what will happen in the future. Make the best of the present, and I'd say that's what the Clooneys are doing.

My mom had my sister and me, fraternal twins, in her 30's. My parents were older than most of my friend's parents but it wasn't a big deal.

My Father-in-law had my husband at 50. He lived a great life, unfortunately he died shortly after his only grandson, named after him was born. I really believe he willed himself to live to see his grandson which he always wanted be born. My husband dearly misses him. I am glad that he got to see his son graduate college, get married and have children. My husband wishes his dad could have seen his grandchildren grow up, and his son advance in his career but he is really happy that his dad got see everything that he did.

Alisande

It's nice to have your parents around when you're an adult, too. Not to mention, giving them grands.

Yes, it's nice. But I'm sure you wouldn't tell an adult child of elderly parents, "You really shouldn't have been born."

George married late, Amal relatively so. Should they decide not to have children because they missed the optimum window?

*****

Please, I didn't mean to strike a nerve, which I obviously did. Some of these celebs having kids in their 60's, just because they can, is more what bothers me.

Of course Amal isn't too old!!!!!

The fact is, when you have kids after 50, chances are, you're not going to be around for them as long as you would if you had them earlier. That's all.

My twins were due on my 40th birthday but weren't born until 11 days later. I think they have kept me young(er). The Clooneys and Beyonce will be competing for media attention with their twins.

Thanks for clarifying, Mimipadv. Yeah, I don't recommend having kids in your 60's. Especially women. I cringe when I read those stories--which fortunately isn't often. :-)

I'm just happy for the couple and wonder why anyone cares how old they are.

I've known several 'last born' people who knew very well they were unwelcome surprises. They were never ill-treated. It was never mentioned. They still knew. (I think of how far-reaching this is when strangers want to control other people's difficult and *private* family decisions about pregnancies.)

It's not just celebrities who are delaying marriage and children. I'm sorry to see how common it is -- and how often it requires expensive and lengthy medical intervention *only* due to the delay. There are also more unfortunate outcomes, prenatal and postnatal, and well beyond.

There's a sort of societal false belief that a child can easily be a postponed acquisition -- after the house, the pet, the advanced degree, the (whatever). "Baby" is just the beginning. There's a whole lifetime of things that go differently for late parents and their children. Some of it is good. Some isn't.

A doctor was just mentioning that all the celebrities having children in their late 30's and beyond give false hope to the general public. I agree with Chisue, it is not easy getting pregnant and carrying to full term as the body ages.

Amal is actually 39.

There are no guarantees in life. My favorite story was one of a woman sharing the love she had for her dad. He was 60 when she was born. She related how he taught her how to ride a bike, drive a car, walked her down the aisle on her wedding day and was there when she delivered his first grandchild.

I guess 40 is really the new 30. But, I think there has to be a cut off point somewhere. There is a lot of lifting, bending, getting down on the floor, sleepless nights etc. with newborns and young children. I don't think I could handle those stages in my 40's.

I'm not casting aspersions on anyone having a baby later in life*, or choosing by design to do it. I'm observing this pattern in Hollywood and celebdom, where very wealthy people can have all the help they need, and the best medical care in the world, and make it look like no biggie.

It's a biggie! Without full time nannies, it's a biggie!

BTW, as I suspected, The Clooneys are having a boy and a girl.

*my mom was mid-thirties when I arrived. I was vividly aware of the generation gap between her and my cohort's younger, hipper moms.

Just an observation. I loved my mom dearly and miss her all the time.

I met a family while I was on vacation last summer where mom was 56 when the twins were born. They should be six now. This was at least a second marriage for both. Both had older grown kids from the previous marriage. Then the husband's daughter was killed in a car wreck. They asked a daughter from one and a son from the other to donate eggs and sperm. They had a surrogate and a second egg was only $500 more. They do have a family business and older children who could step in to help if needed. The parents were very hands on and loving with the children. Imo, I still thought they were too old.

I'm several years younger. My husband and were discussing the possibility of adopting a now five year old family member a couple of years back. He thought we were way too old. The little girl would be a lot of work. I'm starting to agree with him. We were too old. I'm enjoying the freedoms of my kids not being little anymore. My kids loved the idea of adopting her. I not sure I have the energy that very healthy and active little girl would require. She would have been loved and possibly very spoiled.

In 1952, my mother, aged 42, gave birth to my younger brother. He was the most premature baby born to survive at that time. It happens.

I was born in 1943. At that time, most people had their children starting in their late teens, very early 20's. My mother was 35 (elderly for those days!) and my father was almost 42. My parents were SO much olderthan my friend's parents and I was an only child. They lived to be 84 and 85 so my children knew their grandparents very well, but that's because I had them at ages 26 and 28.

I always told my daughter to have her children before she was 30. Her 20th wedding anniversary was this past Tues, and she had her 2nd child about 2 months after her 30th birthday. She is very glad she didn't wait! She was able to stay at home with her boys until the oldest was 6 and the youngest 4 and her career has not suffered at all because she is still young!

I was born in 1943 too. My mother was 28 and my father was 40. She died when I was 9, and I never for a minute thought of my dad as older than my friends' parents. I don't even know if he was. He was exactly what this motherless child needed: affectionate and fun. Give him a group of kids, and somehow a ball would materialize and he'd get some sort of game going. My friends were drawn to him, all through our teens. He was 90 when he died 9 days before my 50th birthday.

do you know the most often asked question as a parent of twins? are they identical....and I had a boy and a girl!! now back in the about 1978 (the kids were 2) we went to a National twins club gathering...I was surprised to learn black parents were the highest parents of twins? so maybe beyonce's babies are "natural"? I just hope both families are successful, and go as close to term as possible...at least if they have b/g, they won't fall into the same outfits all the time...lol...

Exceptions are supposed to prove the rule. Older parents are not optimum in most cases.

Something I've seen with people struggling to conceive and bear children -- or to adopt -- is the intense focus on ending their childless status. A natural desire becomes unnaturally desperate. The 'goal' is "A Baby".

Afterwards, safely 'in possession', parents recognize the needs of the child as an individual person, not some amorphous 'Baby', as abstract concept and 'cure'. (Because...the babies don't get to choose.)

Not everyone hits their desired timeline, though. Not everyone is lucky enough to meet their spouse or be able to afford a child in their 20's.

I'm leaning toward the idea of scheduled pregnancies?!

When I was in college, roommate's parents were over 40 when she was born... so around 60 at the time. Another close friend had parents who weren't even 40 yet... a bit of a hmmmm story to go with this, but not here/now. My Dad was probably about 45. At the time when "we" (those I mentioned) were born, many moms were probably not much more than 20 with first baby. Pregnancy was sort of hidden a bit... NO bellies flaunted... almost "I Love Lucy" attire. remember when neighbor was having last of 4 kids. She was 10-12 years younger than her older sister and that was a bit unusual, at the time... like possible "accident"?!?

Klseiverd, you reminded me of something interesting.

I'd been talking with my brother and his grown kids (I'm 66) and happened to mention I have absolutely no memory of seeing our mom pregnant. I was age 8 when she was having her last child so I was of an age to have that memory. I just don't though!

During this conversation two of my nieces were hugely pregnant and looked like they had watermelons on their laps. How could I NOT have noticed my mother being pregnant?

Then it dawned on me. Mom had all her children during the 1950s. Back then you NEVER showed a "bump". You NEVER wore skin-tight tee shirts pulled over the "bump". You NEVER took photos of yourself with a growing "bump" to post on social media.

Back then women HID their swelling bodies under baggy maternity tops. I have lots of memories of Mom wearing Dad's long sleeved button front flannel shirts when I was a child. I'll bet she was pregnant under Dad's shirts!

Now I don't feel so weird that memories of Mom's pregnancies don't stand out in my mind. It was a different time!

Kessala

Kessala, I was 7 when my brother was born and I have no memory of my mother being pregnant either. I remember the baby coming home and my sister and I doting on him, but not the months leading up to his arrival.

My MIL bore her first son in 1929 and her last in 1955. She had 8 more children in between those two. When DH and I married, he had a brother just a few months younger than my mother, and a brother the same age as my own little brother.

My mother was 42 when I was born...already a grandmother. She was thin and wrinkled and had grey hair and looked much older. I never gave it a thought, much less felt deprived because of it.

Why have I given so much thought to 'late' children? Why, because I was one of those poor 'empty arms' women focused on 'a baby' for years of infertility. I was 30 when we were able to adopt.

I've met hundreds of people from all three sides of the adoption triad. I've found that many adoptive parents are extremely sensitive about what they appear to view as 'their possession'. It's natural for any hard-won goal to become monumental, but 'achieving parent status' isn't the same thing as becoming a healthy family.

Chinese, limited to a single child, exhibit this intensity. American children are often idealized as well.

I'd just like young women who DO want children to recognize that having them is not a 'whenever' thing. It is much less within their control than is 'setting the stage for a family'. I'm not supporting irresponsible pregnancies. I'm saying that there is a limited window. Many 'situations' are not only good enough, but can and will change -- long beyond the arrival of Baby.

I think it's a wonderful thing that after so many years of being a bachelor, Mr. Clooney finally found "the one" and they are now having a family. Regardless of the parent's age or life status, when any child is born or adopted into a home where they are wanted and loved it's a blessing. My heart breaks for parents who desparately want children but can't conceive.

lukkiirish - You are very wise.

There's heartbreak enough to go around. I've been the 'hopes dashed' woman. There's also the mother who loses her baby to adoption because her 'situation' isn't right when the baby is born -- although it may have become fine very soon. There's the adopted person who has to fight a legal system to meet his own mother, father or extended family members -- while being accused of not being 'grateful' to the people he fully considers his Mom and Dad.

OK. I've wandered far from good wishes for the Clooneys. I hope all goes very well for all concerned. I'm sure the world will be looking for some beautiful kids for as long as their father is in the public eye.

I wish them happiness and good health...babies are a miracle.

Yay! Babies are cool!

Lukkiirish, along those lines, I am sure there are many out there feeling disappointed as they don't have the same means as the celebrities..

I hear clearly what Chi is saying and understand how this type of news can evoke all kinds of feelings.

But this is what I appreciate most about this site. Threads bring up opportunities to share our feelings and opinions and we learn more about each other along the way.