George and Amal Clooney welcome boy and girl twins

File photo dated February 1, 2016 shows actor George Clooney and wife Amal at the Regency Village Theater, in Westwood, California. (AFP / Valerie Macon)

NEW YORK/JEDDAH: George and Amal Clooney are now parents of twins.
The Clooneys welcomed Ella and Alexander on Tuesday morning, announcing in a joint statement that daughter Ella, son Alexander and mother Amal were all “happy, healthy and doing fine.”
The Clooneys had been living in London while awaiting the arrival of their babies.
George Clooney’s mother-in-law, Baria Alamuddin, was thrilled with the news. “I am the proudest, happiest grandmother in the universe,” she told Arab News.
Amal Clooney, 39, and the 56-year-old Oscar-winning star of films like “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Three Kings” married in Italy in 2014, making them one of the world’s biggest celebrity couples.
The couple adopted a low profile during the pregnancy, keeping the news private for months before it was confirmed in February by the actor’s close friend, Matt Damon.
Amal Clooney largely continued her work as a human rights lawyer, addressing the United Nations in March and urging the international community to investigate crimes committed by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Nevertheless, celebrity news media speculated for months about the sex of the twins, where they would be born and in which country they will be raised.
On Tuesday, social media lit up with congratulatory messages and “Ella and Alexander” was among the top trending topics on Twitter in the United States.
Many contributors praised the choice of names as a refreshingly normal departure from a trend that has seen celebrity babies given names like Apple, Audio, Bronx, North West and Rocket.
“Good lord, the Clooneys have given their twins lovely ordinary names. Shocking. And they call themselves celebrities...,” wrote British journalist Nicola Jane Swinney on Twitter.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres posted a Twitter message saying, “Congratulations, George and Amal, or as I’m now calling you, Ocean’s Four.”
Congratulations also came from actress Mia Farrow and US journalist Katie Couric.
People magazine reported on Tuesday that former US President Barack Obama paid a long, private visit with the Clooneys at their home in the countryside west of London on May 27.
George Clooney canceled a visit to Armenia for a humanitarian event this past weekend, saying in a message to organizers that “if I came there and my wife had twins while I was there, I could never come home.”
(With input from AP & Reuters)