Girl and boy Ella and Alexander Clooney are the first children for the human rights lawyer and her Hollywood actor husband

Amal Clooney has given birth to twins, a spokesperson confirmed. Ella and Alexander were born on Tuesday morning and are the first children of the human rights lawyer and her husband, George Clooney.

“This morning Amal and George welcomed Ella and Alexander Clooney into their lives,” said the statement. “Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine. George is sedated and should recover in a few days.”

George Clooney, who spent years being described as Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor, met his wife in 2013. They married a year later in an opulent ceremony in Venice.

The actor, 56, recently spoke about becoming a father for the first time. “My favourite part is, you know, all my friends who are my age, and I have many of them, they’re already done. Their kids are all grown up and away to college and they are laughing,” he said on French TV.

In March he said he had been trying to learn some essential skills in preparation for the twins. “I know swaddling ... I know what I’m in for,” he joked.

Amal Clooney was born in Lebanon but moved to the UK as a child as her family fled the civil war. After their marriage, the couple bought a £10m mansion on an island in the Thames in Berkshire and have made Britain their home.

George Clooney said he and his wife were “really happy and really excited” at the prospect of parenthood. “It’s going to be an adventure,” he said. “We’ve sort of embraced it all with arms wide open.”

Last week he skipped a humanitarian awards ceremony he co-founded in Armenia while he was waiting for the birth of the twins, telling the event via a video message that if he missed his wife going into labour “I could never come home”.

The couple have spent their careers travelling to dangerous parts of the world; the Hollywood actor for his humanitarian work for the UN and Amal for her work as an internationally renowned lawyer. However, both said they would stop visiting volatile regions when they became parents.

“We decided to be much more responsible, to avoid the danger,” said the Academy award winner. “I will not go to South Sudan any more and in the Congo, Amal will no longer go to Iraq and she will avoid places where she knows she is not welcome.”