George Clooney, 48, wouldn’t marry himself and doesn’t know how his girlfriends put up with him.

George Clooney, who seems born to play the disaffected middle-aged male in Up in the Air, is currently dating a gorgeous Italian MTV presenter, Elisabetta Canalis, 31.

Naturally, there are wedding rumours. But Clooney says he wouldn’t place bets on himself. He said: “I am always working and have so many different interests outside acting. If I was my girlfriend, I wouldn’t put up with me for very long – and they don’t either. People are always trying to marry me off, thinking I am suffering in some way. I tried marriage – and it didn’t work. I have had long relationships with women and they get bored with me working all the time. My fear is that I would still make a lousy husband and I don’t want to put myself – or anyone else – through the pain of finding out.”

It is a little-known fact that Clooney was once married to an actress, Talia Balsam, from 1989 to 1993.

He said that it may have worked out better if he tried it at a more seasoned stage of life. “Have I had doubts? Of course. But I don’t have time to think about them, because I am always travelling and working. Had marriage come later in life, I would probably have understood better how to make it work.”