Amal Clooney joked about Meryl Streep's "marriage" to her husband George Clooney while accepting an award

Amal - who married George in 2014 and went on to have their twins, three-year-old Ella and Alexander - said: "You are an inspiration as a woman, as an artist, as a press-freedom advocate.

"I know I can't ever hope to win the number of awards that you've won, but it does occur to me that we have something special in common, which is that we've both been married to my husband. And honestly, the fact that you did it as Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic Fox just makes that so much less awkward."

George, 59, and the 71-year-old actress voiced married foxes in the 2009 animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', and Meryl also starred in 2013's 'August: Osage Country', which was produced by the former 'E.R.' star.

The famous prankster previously joked he felt Meryl was "overrated", echoing President Donald Trump's furious tweet in response to the 'Mamma Mia!' actress' attack on him in her powerful 2017 Golden Globe Awards speech.

George quipped: "I've always said that about Meryl. She's maybe the most overrated actress of all-time. She and I worked together on Fantastic Mr. Fox as husband and wife, and I will tell you even as a fox, a female fox, she's overrated."

In 2013 Meryl hailed George as "the dream boyfriend".

Julia Roberts was presenting a prize to her 'Ocean's Eleven' co-star at the Britannia Awards and read out a letter from Meryl, which described their pal as "the dream boyfriend you have right out of college—sophisticated, older, knowledgeable about the ways of the world unlike all the callous, dopey undergraduates you so recently dated."