Regex error: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

[DBS]

When I assign the variable to r as you have above, I get the error message, but if print r.group(1), I get the intended results??

With the same code as i post?
Here as a script,tested Python 2 and 3.

import re

s = '**string1;string2;string3**'
r = re.search(r'\*\*(.*)\*\*', s)
print(r.group(1))

#Now assign to variable r
r = re.search(r'\*\*(.*)\*\*', s).group(1)
print(r)

Output:
string1;string2;string3
string1;string2;string3

Same result.  If I print(r.group(1)), I get the correct results, but when I assign .group(1) to r, I get the error message.  Is there a bug or another step I may need to do for decoding or escaping asterisks??