‘European at heart’: sense and sensibility behind Nick Clegg’s return
Nick Clegg’s Europhile leanings are not just a political and professional matter, as a prominent remainer and former MEP, but a personal one too.
Meta’s president of global affairs has a Dutch mother, a half-Russian father and is fluent in Dutch, German, Spanish and French. His wife, Miriam González Durántez, a leading international trade lawyer, is Spanish.
Clegg and González Durántez have not hidden their longing for home during their stay in California, where they moved with their three children after Mark Zuckerberg hired the former Liberal Democrat leader in 2018.
Clegg, 55, said in an interview last year that his “heart belongs massively 5,000 miles away” while González Durántez posted on Instagram that she felt like “kissing the ground” upon a pandemic-delayed return to Spain last year.
That personal attachment played a role in the revelation on Wednesday that Clegg, Zuckerberg’s point person for dealing with government relations and policy around the world, will partly relocate to London this year. It is understood that Clegg views London as a good base for dealing with issues in Europe and Asia, while the Financial Times, which first reported the story, said personal reasons were a key factor, including being close to his elderly parents.
Clegg had previously expressed his desire to return to Europe, a continent he has described as “very much part of who I am”. Asked by the FT last year if he wanted to spend another five years in California, he said: “No, no … I’m such a European at heart. I enjoy the work immensely – I’ve got absolutely no sell-by date about the work,” adding that his heart was in Europe.
González Durántez, 54, has been more tongue-in-cheek about the limitations of life in California with Clegg and
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