George Clooney Mourns the Heartbreaking Death of a Family Member

The 64-year-old acclaimed Hollywood actor has released a statement sharing how his beloved sibling died and paid tribute to her.

Adelia "Ada" Zeidler, the older sister of "Ocean's Eleven" star George Clooney, has passed away at the age of 65.

A respected teacher and artist, she passed away in Kentucky, where she spent her life devoted to family, education, and the arts.

Ada died on Friday, December 19, 2025, at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Kentucky. Her family was with her. She lived in Augusta and taught art at Augusta Independent School, inspiring generations of students.

Outside the classroom, she joined a local book club and was active in the Augusta Art Guild. In 2004, she was honored as grand marshal of the town's Annual White Christmas Parade.

Born on May 2, 1960, in Los Angeles to Nick and Nina Clooney, she was a National Merit Scholar in high school. She brought that same energy and dedication to her teaching and community work.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Norman Zeidler, in 2004. She is survived by her children, Nick Zeidler and Allison Zeidler Herolaga (with husband Kenny), her brother George, and sister-in-law Amal Clooney.

People confirmed that the actor's older sibling died of cancer. Clooney said in a statement, "My sister, Ada, was my hero. She faced down cancer with courage and humor. I've never met anyone so brave. Amal and I will miss her terribly."

The family asks that donations be made to the Knoedler Memorial Library in Augusta in place of flowers.

A funeral mass will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, December 22, at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Maysville. A private burial will follow at St. Patrick Cemetery in Washington, Kentucky.

A Quiet Presence at a Very Public Celebration

In 2014, Ada made a rare public appearance at her brother's star-studded wedding celebration in Venice, Italy. Dressed in a sparkling, silver gown, she was seen being gently escorted down a flight of steps alongside George and other close family members.

Photos captured a tender moment: George walking closely behind her, attentive as ever, while others offered their hands to guide her safely to the waiting boats. Ada appeared serene and elegant, surrounded by loved ones on the eve of one of the most high-profile weddings of the decade.

George Clooney on Growing Up in the Spotlight With His Sister

In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, George shared how life in a locally famous family shaped both him and his sister Ada. The early attention they received in Ohio and Kentucky came with pressure and moments of deep discomfort.

When he was 14, George experienced the onset of Bell's palsy while out with his family. His sister Ada had gone through the same condition before him. The sudden facial paralysis and visible symptoms drew teasing from classmates, and his father's local fame only made things more complicated. George said:

"You have to remember that in the microcosm of Cincinnati, Ohio, through northern Kentucky, my father was a big star, still is. So that made my sister and me really visible. Everybody knew us, talked about us."

Later in the interview, George spoke about how their childhood was shaped by being part of an "entertainment family," one that expected performance, even when the cameras weren't rolling.

"My sister and I never really loved doing those," George stated. "You had to be on. It was show-business time. You were required to entertain." He also recalled commercials he and his mother did for his father's show, and how their family functioned like a vaudeville act.

While he often wanted to be out with friends, Ada preferred quiet moments with books. George said, "My sister just wanted to read. And my parents could be silently unhappy. But once we got out of the car, it was show business, baby. You're on."

As the actor continues to navigate grief privately, his recent appearances and interviews offer a glimpse into how he's also approaching aging, work, and legacy with quiet intention.

As reported on December 15, for decades, Clooney's romantic leading man status felt almost baked into his identity. The charm, the chemistry, the easy intimacy, it was part of the package Hollywood expected from him.

So when George casually revealed that he's stepping away from on-screen kissing, it landed less like a career footnote and more like a quiet statement about self-awareness, timing, and what it means to age with intention in the public eye.

This isn't about rules or rigidity. It's about knowing when a chapter has given you everything it can, and choosing not to force it past its natural end.

Drawing a Boundary, Not a Line

George's decision didn't come from nowhere. Speaking to Daily Mail's Richard Eden, the Oscar winner revealed that he's been consciously moving away from romantic scenes, taking inspiration from Paul Newman's later-career choices: [Block quote format]

"I've been trying to go the route Paul Newman did: 'OK, well, I'm not kissing a girl any more [sic].'"

It's a striking admission from a man whose résumé includes iconic romantic pairings with stars like Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones — performances that helped cement his place as Hollywood's ultimate charmer.

But George isn't pretending the shift is easy or purely professional. Now 64, he openly acknowledged that this choice came after an honest conversation at home, particularly with his wife, Amal Clooney.

"When I turned 60, I had a conversation with my wife," he recalled. "I said, 'Look, I can still play basketball with the boys. I play with 25-year-old guys. I can still hang, I'm in shape. But in 25 years, I'm 85 years old.' It doesn't matter how many granola bars you eat, that's a real number."

There's no panic in that reflection. Just math… and perspective.

Why Such Decisions Hit Differently at This Stage

What makes George's decision feel meaningful isn't the act itself, but the awareness behind it. He isn't disavowing romance or pretending intimacy is beneath him. He's acknowledging that certain performances carry different weight as life expands.

Fatherhood has sharpened that clarity. George and Amal share twins, Ella and Alexander Clooney, and becoming a parent later in life has reshaped how he approaches work and time.

"I had kids very late and [sic] so I could spend more time with them," he told The Times. "But when you're young? That's hard."

This isn't a man stepping back because he can't keep up. It's a man stepping back because he no longer needs to prove he can.

There's also something quietly radical about a male star recognizing when a trope no longer serves him. Hollywood rarely pressures men to age out of romantic roles, especially not men with George's track record. The industry often lets them play opposite actresses decades younger without question.

George choosing restraint, rather than entitlement, feels like a conscious refusal to coast on past chemistry.

To be clear, George has never taken his romantic reputation too seriously. Even in his early career, he joked openly about the awkwardness behind the scenes.

Recalling a long-ago kissing scene in an interview with The New York Times, he remembered a director stopping him mid-take:

"I had to do a kissing scene with this girl and [sic] the director goes, 'Not like that.' And I was like, 'Dude, that's my move! That's what I do in real life!'"

That self-deprecating humor has always been part of his appeal. What's changed isn't the wit, it's the priorities.

But What About That 2022 Julia Roberts Kiss?

Interestingly, George's no-kissing rule appears to be a fairly recent development — one that might surprise fans who caught his last romantic comedy. In 2022's "Ticket to Paradise," he shared a tender on-screen moment with co-star Julia.

The scene, set against a picturesque beach backdrop, featured the two seated side-by-side on a rock, gently leaning into each other. As George placed his hands on Julia's face and kissed her, the camera captured the moment from behind, their heads nestled together in what looked like a genuine, lingering smooch.

The shot then shifted to the front, revealing their lips seemingly locked in the kind of scene George now seems ready to leave in the past.

Because off-screen, there's no ambiguity about where his emotional center is… with Amal, the woman he credits as the center of his world.

The Real Constant: Choosing the Right Partner

Just days after celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary on September 27, 2025, George opened up about the cornerstone of their enduring union.

"The greatest lesson I learned is to marry the right person, which I did," he told People while attending the "Jay Kelly" premiere at the New York Film Festival. "And so, it has been nothing but an honor and a pleasure to be married to my wife."

The couple marked the milestone with a quiet dinner — no spectacle, no performative romance. Just presence.

Their story began in 2013, progressed quickly, and unfolded publicly, but what's sustained it seems intentionally private. After their Venice wedding in 2014 and the birth of their twins in 2017, George's interviews increasingly centered less on career ambition and more on gratitude.

Meeting Amal, he's said, reframed his entire sense of the future:

"All I know is that it sort of changed everything in terms of what I thought my future — my personal future — was going to be. I wasn't always completely optimistic about how it was going to work out personally for me. But now I am."

That sense of awe never fully left. In 2018, he told David Letterman he'd met someone whose life mattered more to him than his own — a feeling he'd never experienced before.

Amal has echoed that sentiment with the same clarity and grace. At the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring her husband, she described falling in love as both grounding and transformative:

"Very soon it felt like, no matter what happened, I would never want to be with anyone else [...] He is the person who has my complete admiration and also the person whose smile makes me melt every time."

Years later, when named one of TIME's Women of the Year, Amal distilled her feelings even further, "I feel so lucky to have found a great love in my life, and to be a mother — this is how I get my balance."