Inside George Clooney’s villa: Harry and Meghan’s Italian getaway

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have reportedly spent a weekend at George and Amal Clooney’s house on Lake Como.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are said to have flown to Italy on a private jet and stayed for three nights at the Clooney villa.

“The Clooneys had personally invited Meghan and Harry to their home at the beginning of the summer with an open invitation,” a source told Us Weekly. “George and Amal were so happy to host Meghan and Harry. Harry and George have a special bond and friendship.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The royals apparently met the Clooneys’ one-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, and enjoyed the privacy and security of the power couple’s holiday home.

London-based lawyer Amal has known Markle for a while and the Clooneys attended the royal wedding in May.

So what’s it like inside the Clooneys’ villa?

The 18th-century property, which is called Villa Oleandra, is located in Laglio, a village on the western shore of Lake Como.

It was home to a handful of Italian families before it was sold to the American Heinz family. Clooney purchased the villa in 2002.

The actor started visiting Lake Como 17 years ago when he and a friend discovered Villa Oleandra while motorbiking around Italy.

“After one of the bikes broke down outside its gates, the owners ushered them in and proceeded to sell Clooney their house for $7.5 million,” says The Hollywood Reporter.

“Since then, he’s also bought an adjacent property, the Villa Margherita, partly to keep that building from becoming a viper’s nest for enquiring minds.”

Clooney has hosted many famous people at the villa, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, the Beckhams, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas. Clooney also filmed parts of Oceans Twelve there.

The building is surrounded by a large botanical garden and is said to boast 25 rooms, an outdoor theatre, a pool and a garage for the actor’s motorbikes.

“This luxurious estate also has a tennis court, a full gym, landscaped gardens, ornately carved ceilings, massive bathrooms, a separate ‘pizza room’, and an amazing constructed wall to keep the lake from pouring directly into the house,” says The Most Expensive Homes website.