Michelle Obama is getting candid about the not-so-glamorous side of raising her daughters in the White House spotlight.
In a revealing interview on Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa on SiriusXM, the former First Lady called the teenage years of her daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, nothing short of a “nightmare”, and not for the reasons most parents might expect.
Michelle, now 61, opened up about the immense pressure and responsibility she and husband Barack Obama felt trying to give their daughters a “normal” upbringing while under the constant scrutiny that comes with being part of America’s first family.
“They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams and they traveled to other schools and they had to do college searches, and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things,” she said. “And every weekend was a nightmare, because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn’t wind up on Page Six.”
The Obamas, well aware of the microscope on their daughters, worked overtime to keep Malia and Sasha’s normal teenage experiences private. Even routine events like school dances or house parties became logistical puzzles involving Secret Service coordination and public perception management.
“When your kids are under the security of the Secret Service, you almost have to work twice as hard to make their life normal,” Michelle said. That included managing “play dates” that turned into full-blown operations. “The process of having my children at your house meant that an advanced team had to come and question and search your house and ask if you had drugs and guns.”
While the Obamas always aimed to keep things grounded at home, Michelle admits it hasn’t been easy to strike the right balance between protection and normalcy. She jokingly referred to the long-term impact of presidential fame on her daughters’ lives as “the Obama tax.”
“You’ll have it the rest of your life, but you also have a lot of benefits,” she noted. “I’m trying to make this feel normal to them, because you don’t want them to start thinking, number one, they’re full of themselves, that any of this is about them. This world is not about you. This is just your dad’s job.”
Now in their 20s, Malia is 26 and Sasha is 23, both daughters are carving out lives of their own, far removed from the constant public gaze of their teenage years. But Michelle’s comments serve as a sobering reminder of what it means to grow up under the unrelenting eye of the public, and how even the most “normal” milestones can come with extraordinary challenges when you’re a presidential kid.
