George Clooney opened up with rare emotion about the death of his sister, Adelia “Ada” Zeidler, who died of cancer last December at the age of 65.
Speaking during a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival this week, Clooney recalled the speed of her decline and the intimacy of being by her side in her final moments.
“She died very quickly, and I was with her when she died,” he said, describing the experience of holding her hand and being struck by “how brief all of this is,” according to Variety.
The Good Night, and Good Luck director reflected on how vividly childhood memories returned to him, saying it felt like only “minutes ago” that he and Ada were little children holding hands.
Clooney, who received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the festival, said the loss had sharpened his sense of life’s fleeting nature. “Time goes fast,” he reflected. “All of this. And so we have to find nothing but joy.”
Ada largely stayed away from the spotlight, but she was seen with her famous brother in Venice in 2014, when the siblings traveled by canal during the celebrations surrounding his wedding to Amal Clooney.
George Clooney spoke movingly about the final moments of his sister Adelia “Ada” Zeidler, who died of cancer last December at 65
“She died very quickly, and I was with her when she died,” Clooney said during a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival
Clooney previously described Ada as his ‘hero’ when he broke his silence on her death in a statement released the following day.
‘She faced down cancer with courage and humor. I’ve never met anyone so brave. Amal and I will miss her terribly,’ said the Ocean’s Eleven star.
Ada’s official obituary described her as a ‘talented artist’ in her own right who ‘died peacefully’ while ‘surrounded by the people she loved’ on December 19, 2025.
Three days after her death at a branch of St Elizabeth Healthcare in Kentucky, her funeral was held at Patrick Catholic Church in Maysville.
A decade before Ada’s death, Clooney remarked that he was ‘very close to’ his sister, in an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning.
‘And I’ve got a niece and nephew. My nephew was just made prom king from the high school that I went to where I was not named,’ he quipped, referring to Ada’s children.
Ada was born in Los Angeles on May 2, 1960 to Nick and Nina Clooney, just one year and four days before her movie star brother.
George and Ada Clooney hailed from a showbiz family – their father was a noted radio host and liberal activist, while their aunt was the celebrated jazz singer Rosemary Clooney, who also starred in the classic 1954 movie White Christmas.
Ada and her brother were spotted in Venice in 2014, the pair of them riding along a canal together during their visit to the city for his wedding to his wife Amal Clooney
Ada married retired army captain Normal Zeidler in 1987 and welcomed two children with him before he died of a heart attack in October 2004
Ada is pictured with her son Nick, who Clooney quipped in 2015 ‘was just made prom king from the high school that I went to where I was not named’
Ada was born in Los Angeles on May 2, 1960 to Nick and Nina Clooney, just one year and four days before her movie star brother; Clooney pictured with his parents in 2005
Nina, a onetime beauty queen, shared warm memories of the way her children played with each other during their childhood in Kentucky, in a 2006 interview with HGTV.
She laughingly recalled arriving home from work to see George and Ada having a party with their friends and goofing around with marshmallows.
The children, she said, ‘would lick one side of’ each marshmallow ‘and throw them at each other. When I came in, there were marshmallows stuck all over the room.’
Clooney himself has also painted a fond portrait of the gentle environment in rural Kentucky where he and Ada passed their childhoods.
‘All the things we see on cable news of people being unkind to one another doesn’t exist,’ he said in a 2019 interview with the Nashville paper the Tennessean. ‘They have to get along. I was really lucky to be raised in a small town like that.’
Ada married retired army captain Normal Zeidler in 1987 and raised two children with him before he died of a heart attack in October 2004.
The bride’s brother reportedly gave a scripture reading at the Zeidler wedding, where Rosemary is said to have treated the guests to a song.
