The first time Amal Clooney met Charlotte Tilbury, the human rights lawyer was preparing for her wedding. Charlotte arrived at her front door heavily pregnant and wheeling five oversized suitcases of makeup. Amal blinked at the sheer theatricality of it. “Is all that for me?” she asked. For the renowned makeup artist, that was traveling light.
By the time of the wedding, Charlotte was no longer just the makeup artist getting the bride ready—she was an invited guest. Their connection, built on shared energy and strong maternal figures, became the beginning of something much more enduring: a sisterhood rooted in purpose, ambition, love, and a healthy dose of honesty.
They come from different worlds (although as Charlotte points out, both are Aquarius with Pisces mothers)—one a decorated human rights lawyer, the other a global beauty entrepreneur. Amal has led landmark cases for women who went on to be Nobel laureates – like Nadia Murad and Maria Ressa. She has defended political prisoners, helped free journalists across continents, and shaped justice systems from Myanmar to The Hague. As cofounder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice with her husband, actor and director, George Clooney, she has now created a global network that provides free legal representation to thousands of women and girls around the world and helped free dozens of journalists who have been imprisoned for their speech.
Charlotte has built a bona fide beauty empire valued at over $1 billion, was the first makeup artist to receive an MBE—member of the Order of the British Empire, an honor awarded by the monarch for a particular achievement—and is a definitive staple in makeup bags for millions of people across the globe.
I’ve known both women for years. Amal and I have been close friends since our single days in London, when I was working as a television producer for the BBC and Amal was already a phenomenal legal mind working as a barrister at law firm Doughty Street Chambers. I met Charlotte at Amal’s wedding, where the sparkle on her eye shadow was rivaled only by her energy on the dance floor. Since then I’ve followed their work and their life paths.
On a sunny June morning, I sit with both women in Amal’s English country home to do more than just catch up—to discuss empowering initiatives that are dear to them both. Amal and Charlotte have just been at Buckingham Palace where they’ve used their friendship as a launchpad for real impact via their work with The King’s Trust, a charitable organization founded by King Charles III (then Prince Charles) in 1976. It was renamed from The Prince’s Trust in 2024 and focuses on providing young people who are facing challenges with mentorship, funding, job training, and skill building.
Both Amal and Charlotte have spent the last four years mentoring and uplifting young women from around the world—Kenya, Pakistan, India—many of whom are survivors of poverty, forced marriage, or systemic violence. The award created by the Trust in Amal’s name honors one extraordinary young woman each year, while Charlotte hosts hands-on workshops to teach entrepreneurship and confidence.
And then there are the Albie Awards, hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice—an annual event that shines a spotlight on the unsung heroes who are fighting for justice: journalists, advocates, and human rights defenders risking their lives for truth. Charlotte is not only a sponsor but truly committed to the vision. This fall the Albies will take place in London for the first time at the city’s National History Museum.
Amal’s kitchen table, where we settled in to do our interview, still held the remains of breakfast. There were updates about children, requests for tea and Coca-Cola, and gentle teasing. Amal’s husband, George, popped in and out—always charming, always supportive, joking about his rival photo shoot taking place in the garden.
This is a friendship that glows with love and joy, but it’s also girded by hard work, deep trust, and shared mission. There is fun , yes, but also courtroom advocacy, cross-continental mentorship, and real-time strategy over WhatsApp. It’s women who understand that showing up for one another isn’t a luxury, it’s a legacy.
Samantha Barry: Let’s go back to that first meeting between you two. What do you both remember?
Amal Clooney: When Charlotte showed up at my door with all those suitcases, I was aghast. I was like, “Are you going to need all of those products?” But I loved her energy and we got on so well.
Charlotte Tilbury: I fell in love with Amal because she’s such an inspiration. And I met her mother Baria, too; she’s actually helped me when I had to go and do TV interviews. I think all the women in her family are actually very inspirational. I mean, Amal obviously is a major champion of empowerment of women around the world. You’re an inspiration to all and to me.
Amal: Well, can I just say I feel the same about you because I’m always so proud, because I think people meet Charlotte and they see this really attractive, bubbly, friendly, really down-to-earth person. And I’m always keen to point out, “By the way, she’s one of the most successful female entrepreneurs to ever come out of the United Kingdom.”
Amal, this weekend you talked about George in such a beautiful way. Can you share what he means to your work?
Amal: I have a partner in life who is so supportive of what I do. So I don’t feel like I have to apologize for it or rein it in. And I remember when I became a mom, which was obviously a new frontier, he was the first one to say, “I know you’ve got this speech at the Security Council. You have to go, I’ve got the kids, don’t worry about it.” I feel so incredibly lucky to share every day with him. And now we’re four. And I don’t take any of it for granted. I treasure the laughter and the joy that I get from just being with them.
Let’s talk about The King’s Trust. Why is it so central to both of you?
Amal: This is the fourth year that we’ve teamed up with The King’s Trust. They reached out and said, “We’d like to establish this award called the Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award.” And I was really touched and really honored that we could have this opportunity to shine a light on one example of what they do, which is try to empower women through up-skilling and training in some of the most remote parts of places like Kenya and India and Pakistan.
This year’s awardee is Alice, a 19-year-old girl from a part of Kenya where many of the girls end up as child brides – unable to complete their education and limited to a life at home. She was unwilling to be that girl and to have that fate. She lost her father at a young age, and so she just set up her own bead-making business and made it profitable. She then used marketing skills to reach more people. And now she’s able to not only sustain herself and her whole family, but she’s become an employer of lots of other girls in the community and she trains them in the school holidays while she completes her education.
Charlotte: We’re very focused. We’re here on this planet for a very short time, and we want to effect lasting change.
Amal: One of the awardees Charlotte and I met a few years ago was from Tanzania. She was fighting against child marriage in that country, where about one in four girls have been getting kicked out of school for being pregnant or married, never completing their education. And again, she was not willing to go along with that system, and she was telling Charlotte and me that she wanted to study law. Now we’ve been supporting her through her college studies. I love keeping in touch with many of the people we’ve met and seeing them on their journey, particularly when we’re meeting them so young.
You’re both mentors to so many women. What does mentorship mean to you?
Amal: I really enjoy it. For the last 10 years I’ve been teaching law students, first at Columbia Law School and now I teach at Oxford at the School of Government. And I get so much inspiration from meeting people in this generation. Thinking back to my days at Oxford—that’s where I studied law—and now being back there two decades later, has made me reflect that I wasn’t remotely as engaged with the world, as knowledgeable about the world, as this generation is. I didn’t vote. I was much more insular. But the people I’m meeting now are not only unsatisfied with the status quo, they are determined to be agents of change. It’s invigorating to be around them. They ask really good and sometimes difficult questions. I love seeing that sort of curiosity. It’s something that we’re trying to instill in our kids. I mean, they’re only eight, so they have a way to go, but I always say, “If you don’t ask questions, how are you going to learn anything?”
Charlotte: What I love about The King’s Trust and what I love about the work we do together there is that so many of these people don’t have access to opportunity, and it’s creating that opportunity. So for us, what we do is we hold these workshops where we mentor. We give them marketing skills and commercial skills and product development skills and communication skills. When I started this, five people owned the beauty world—five conglomerates. My whole mentality is, “Dare to dream it, dare to believe it, dare to do it.”
One thing that came up this weekend was privacy. How do you protect yours?
Amal: Creating private moments and spaces is becoming increasingly difficult. But that’s also why we entertain a lot at home. I now have a phone basket that I use to take everyone’s phones away! It’s important to get that balance where you have time alone with your family and with your friends where people feel like you can have a safe and frank exchange. And I would say becoming a parent means you’re more troubled by some of the intrusions. So we do the best we can to minimize any impact on our children. We don’t put our children out there, we’ve never put their photo out there or anything like that.
Charlotte: There’s a public persona and there’s a private persona. And I’m the same, but I do really value my privacy. I’m so grateful to every person that stops me in the street or that I meet that buys my brand or supports me in any way. And that’s wonderful. But then I need that time for my family and myself and my friends and that freedom to just be. And when I’m at home and just in that privacy with Amal or my family or friends, that’s a sacred space. That is freedom.
What does sisterhood mean to each of you?
Amal: We have a lot of fun together.
Charlotte: A lot of fun. It’s really important.
Amal: Charlotte, as soon as she walks in the room, she just lifts everyone’s spirits. She is just so positive, whether she is with someone she’s just met for two seconds or her long-standing friends. I feel incredibly lucky to have friends like her in my life.
Charlotte: It’s honesty. Authenticity, honesty, altruism, compassion, kindness, and effecting change, I think that’s a driving force.
If you could go back and tell your younger self one thing—and pass your confidence on—what would it be?
Charlotte: Show up as your authentic self. I wasn’t always this confident. I’m sure Amal wasn’t either, but you just have to feel the fear, do it anyway, and believe.
Amal: I try to tell young people to flip their attitude from “Why me?” to “Why not me?” So they approach an opportunity not thinking “why would they pick me” but “why not”. I was lucky—I grew up in a place that was safe; with parents who supported me; and an amazing education. Many girls don’t have this start in life; they face very significant barriers. And it’s a driving force in my work to remove those barriers. I was born in a part of the world—in the Middle East—where many women don’t have equal rights and many girls don’t have the same opportunities as boys. And you see the data, and it’s more than 600 million girls around the world who are child- brides; more than 100 million girls out of school; alarming rates of violence against women – both in conflict zones and outside them.
So it’s been a driving force in my work to try to use legal tools to remove those obstacles wherever we can, so that a girl can start her life with the same chance as her brother. I think it also gives us a perspective when you watch young girls in Iran with a backpack on, trying to protest for their most basic rights, and you just think about the risks that girls are having to take around the world to just get basic freedom. It makes me think: if they can do what they’re doing, surely we can do a little bit more from where we stand. My work has sometimes taken me to dark places, but it’s also given me this perspective that I try to cling onto—that we’re so lucky and if we’re given this luck and this opportunity, we should try to spread it.
Let’s end with joy. Where are you finding it?
Charlotte: Life. Every facet of it. Gratitude fills me with joy.
Amal: The people I love—my husband, our children, our friends, filling our house with people we love. That’s the greatest joy in my life and what gives me balance.
Charlotte: Yes, in the end it’s all about love.
Samantha Barry’s Hair Stylist: Ellie Fox at Stella Creative Artists
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