Amal Clooney 'faced sexual harassment in legal world', according to husband George

'My wife, who is a human rights lawyer, says she's faced those exact kinds of situations in law. So it's everywhere, it needs to be addressed as a problem for all of us,' says actor

Amal is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London (Getty Images)

George Clooney has spoken out about the sexual harassment his wife and prominent human rights lawyer Amal has experienced in the legal world.

Clooney’s comments come in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s sex abuse scandal which has seen a slew of women come forward with allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment against the embattled movie mogul.

The actor argued cultures of sexual harassment were both deeply engrained and highly prevalent and transcended the showbiz industry.

"The whole culture of this is going to have to stop. This isn't just showbiz, it's everywhere. It isn't just Fox News, it's in (Washington) DC clearly," Clooney said on Extra TV.

"My wife, who is a human rights lawyer, says she's faced those exact kinds of situations in law. So it's everywhere, it needs to be addressed as a problem for all of us.

Clooney added: "My wife is a very smart, very together, very accomplished human rights lawyer and she said ‘There have been plenty of times in my life and my career, where in the law community, I had to tell someone to knock it off'. So it happens everywhere."

The actor did not provide any actual details of the type of harassment his British-Lebanese wife, who specialises in public international law, international criminal law and human rights, has allegedly been subject to in the workplace.

Amal is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London and her clients include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his fight against extradition. She led an international delegation attempting to secure the release of the former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, stood before Europe's top human rights court to represent Armenia in their case against Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party, and represented convicted Canadian Mohamed Fahmy in Egypt.

Clooney, who has received two Academy Awards for his acting, also addressed the Weinstein furore and said he hoped some positive consequences would come out of it.

“There has to be some good that comes out of all this and the good is going to have to be that women feel safe to speak up and that women are believed,” he said. “And it’s also going to hopefully be enough that it scares any man who would behave like that from doing it and let’s stop having meetings in hotel rooms.”

Clooney said Weinstein is “going to get his and deserves it” and claimed other individuals in the industry had helped the now disgraced producer.

He said: "I want to know who took women up to a hotel room and then left them there for Harvey. I want to know who did that."

Weinstein has supposedly been in rehab for "sex addiction". Almost 60 women have come forward so far with allegations of sexual harassment and assault against him.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale, Lupita Nyong’o, and Angelina Jolie have all accused Weinstein of harassment, while Rose McGowan has accused him of rape.

Weinstein, who has since been expelled from the Oscars and sacked from his namesake company, denies all accusations of nonconsensual sex and the mogul has reportedly said from rehab that there’s a “conspiracy” against him.

“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein. Mr Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances,“ his spokesperson told The Independent in a statement.