George Clooney announced the death of his sister Adelia “Ada” Zeidler in an emotional statement.
“My sister Ada was my hero,” the “Ocean’s Eleven” star told People on Saturday.
“She faced cancer with courage and humor. I have never met a braver person,” he continued. “Amal and I will miss her very much.”
The outlet confirmed that Clooney’s older brother passed away on Friday at the age of 65.
An obituary in Augusta, Kentucky, said she was born in Los Angeles in 1960 and “passed away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones” at a medical facility.
Survivors include her parents, Nick Bruce Clooney and Nina Bruce Clooney, her children, Nick Zeidler and Alison Zeidler Herolaga, her husband Kenny, George and his wife Amal Clooney, and “several aunts, uncles, and cousins,” the obituary said.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Norman Zeidler, who passed away in 2004;
Mr. Zeidler was a former elementary school art teacher and high school National Merit Scholar who loved reading. She grew up in Augusta with her brother.
According to People magazine, George’s aunt Rosemary Clooney performed at George’s wedding to Norman in 1987, where George read aloud from the Bible.
A memorial service for Zeidler is scheduled to be held on Monday.
A representative for Clooney did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Zeidler led a private life, but was seen attending a lavish wedding in Venice, Italy, to her brother, human rights lawyer Amal, in 2014.
Pictures showed the proud sisters sitting alongside the Wolfs actor, 64, on a boat during the celebrations. She wore a silver beaded dress with sheer sleeves at the star-studded wedding.
In a 2012 interview with the New York Daily News, Zeidler confessed that she was so protective of her brother that she didn’t have his phone number.
“I don’t want to have it on my phone and then lose it,” she said at the time, via the Columbus Dispatch. “He calls me and sometimes he does, but email is more convenient for both of us.”
George has previously acknowledged his strong bond with his sister. “My sister, I’m very close,” he said on “CBS This Morning” in 2015.
