Clooney's fiancee Amal is 'a shining light'

Dark-haired beauty Amal Alamuddin, 36, has captured the world’s attention as George Clooney’s ravishing fiancée. The Lebanese-born human rights lawyer, appears so perfectly cast for the role of Mrs Clooney. But who is the new lady in his life?

In London, where Amal works, she is known as one of the most sophisticated and glamorous women in town – a confidante of celebrities and politicians, blessed with what her solicitor colleague, Mark Stephens calls: “A Rolls Royce mind and a wonderful heart.” She dines at smart restaurants, dresses in Oscar de la Renta and has her grooming done at the super-chic John Frieda salon in Mayfair.

George met Amal at a charity dinner in London last October, and a few months later she was spotted on his arm for a private White House screening of his film Monuments Men. A romantic holiday in the Seychelles confirmed suspicions that something serious must afoot, and the Hollywood rumour mill began to buzz.

At their comfortable modern house in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, Amal’s parents politely bat off all inquiries. “We are very sorry, it is a private matter,” says one of their three other children at the front door. The neighbours are similarly guarded, and at the fashionable Doughty Street law firm where Amal works, chief executive Robin Jackson describes her as “fabulous” and “a shining light”, but declines to go into details.

Australian novelist Kathy Lette, wife of prominent barrister Geoffrey Robertson who regularly works with Amal, goes a little further: “The woman is a brilliant lawyer,” Kathy told London’s Standard newspaper, “jaw-droppingly beautiful, perspicacious, principled, passionate about human rights, fluent in three languages, wise, witty, a good laugh and great fun. Hell, I’d marry her. As would every other heterosexual woman I know.”