The reason Julia Roberts couldn’t present George Clooney’s AFI Life Achievement Award Ceremony has been revealed

Julia Roberts was absent from George Clooney’s AFI Life Achievement Award Ceremony on Thursday.

The 57-year-old actor and director was honoured at the American Film Institute for his film work.

It was announced in May that George’s long-term friend Julia Roberts would present the award to him, however, the actress was unable to attend.

The award was instead presented by Shirley MacLaine.

George Clooney, recibiendo el premio a toda una trayectoria, del instituto de cine americano, AFI LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, en su entrega número 46, celebrado en Hollywood, CA. Felicitaciones!!!! #cantwait #movie #comingsoon #afi #afiawards2018 #americanfilminstitute #georgeclooney #lifetimeachievement

A post shared by AQUI ES SÓLO CINE (@aquiessolocine) on Jun 8, 2018 at 5:49am PDT

A spokesperson for AFI told E! that “Julia Roberts is regretfully unable to attend this evening’s AFI Life Achievement Award honoring George Clooney. Ms. Roberts is currently in production and due to a change in schedule, it was not possible to participate as planned.”

Julia has appeared in several films with father of two including, ‘Oceans Eleven’, ‘Oceans Twelve’ and ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ which he directed. The two have been close friends for years outside of work too.

George’s wife Amal made a beautiful and emotional speech at the ceremony, in which she talked about her love for her husband saying, “what I have found with you is the feat love that I always hoped existed”.

Here a portion of Amal’s AFI speech to George (the teary part) #AFILife #georgeclooney pic.twitter.com/Rosz0CrjDr

— Andrea Mandell (@AndreaMandell) June 8, 2018

Other guest that attended included Jennifer Aniston, Bill Murray, Anna Kendrick, Courtney Cox and Cindy Crawford.