Lockdown with boyfriends, college conundrums, and … bad bartending
skills? Malia and Sasha Obama might not be ready to open their own martini bar,
but their lives have taken a pretty drastic turn since their days in the White House!
Michelle Obama revealed on the "Today" show in November 2022 that her two daughters had
moved in together in Los Angeles. It's not necessarily uncommon for siblings to live
together, but it does come as a small surprise since, according to Michelle,
her daughters didn't get along super well when they were younger. She said on the "Today" show:
"There was a period of time when they couldn't stand each other. I said, 'You wait, you are
going to wake up one day and you're going to look over at that other person, and you're going to
know that you two share something very unique,' especially given what they've been through."
It looks like Mom was right. Michelle also shared that her daughters invited her and Barack Obama
over for cocktails at their place, but their bartending skills weren't quite up to par.
"Well, the martinis were a little weak. I don't think they really knew what it was."
We're glad to see the Obama siblings settling into their adult lives,
and we're sure their martini-making skills will improve in time.
With a mom who went to Princeton and Harvard Law, and a dad who went to Columbia and Harvard Law, it
doesn't come as a huge surprise that Malia Obama attended Harvard too. Ivy League education seems
to run strong in the Obama family. But Harvard wasn't an instant choice. According to People,
Malia toured other colleges like Princeton, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania before settling
on Harvard. Her choice to attend the prestigious university was not pushed by her parents; in fact,
Barack Obama supported Malia in choosing any school that offered a good education. He said,
"One piece of advice that I've given [Malia] is not to stress
too much about having to get into one particular college. ... There are a lot
of good colleges and universities out there ... Just because it's not some name-brand,
famous, fancy school doesn't mean that you're not going to get a great education there."
After graduating from the Sidwell Friends School in 2019,
Sasha Obama began her college career at the University of Michigan but later transferred
to the University of Southern California in 2022, per Tatler. Apparently, the psychology classes
are carrying over into Sasha's family life. Per People, Michelle Obama said,
"Sasha's starting to share some articles because she's a psychology major and I
think she's slowly psychoanalyzing us ... Some of the articles are specific
to what she thinks are our individual neuroses."
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have both made marks in the entertainment industry,
with Barack narrating Netflix's "Our Great National Parks" and Michelle debuting her
own cooking show on Netflix called "Waffles + Mochi." Michelle and Barack Obama also have
their own production company which they founded in 2018 called Higher Ground,
which has produced films like "Fatherhood" and "Becoming."
Malia Obama isn't far off from her parents' ventures. In the summer of 2015,
at just 17 years old, Malia interned with HBO's show "Girls," per Vanity Fair. According to the
show's creator and star Lena Dunham, Malia was an angel to work with. Dunham explained,
"She was interning at HBO, and they thought, what if she comes a couple
days a week to the set of 'Girls?' She loved the show, and I mean, obviously we weren't,
like, making her go get our coffee. You're not going to send [the president's daughter to get
coffee]. But she wanted to do all the jobs. That was the cool thing. She was totally enthusiastic."
In addition to interning for "Girls," Malia had prior experience working as a
production assistant for a day on Halle Berry's "Extant" — a 2014 sci-fi series, per The Wrap.
In 2020, Barack Obama described Malia to InStyle, saying,
"[She's] somebody who enjoys people, enjoys life,
and enjoys conversation. She's never bored, which is a badass quality that can take you places."
With a disposition like that, it's no surprise Malia has also forged a
successful TV writing career for herself at just 24 years old. Her most recent endeavor
involved working with "Atlanta" creator Donald Glover. According to Vanity Fair,
Malia was hired to help write a character for Glover's upcoming show "Hive," which features a,
quote, "Beyonce-type character." Apparently, Glover was a fan of Malia's writing. He said,
"I feel like she's just somebody who's gonna have
really good things coming soon. Her writing style is great."
Donald Glover's brother, Stephen Glover, is also working on "Hive" and had nothing
but good things to say about Malia too. He added to her praise, sharing,
"Donald always says perspective is important, and people with different
perspectives are important for a writers room. And for sure, she definitely has a
unique perspective on everything. So we wanted to hear her stories and have her
work with us. Listening to her stories and having her involved really gave us a lot of good ideas."
Malia Obama was connected to her Harvard classmate Rory Farquharson since 2017,
and the pair even quarantined together in 2020, according to the New York Post. On
the subject of his daughter’s boyfriend, Obama told "The Bill Simmons Podcast,''
"There was this whole visa thing, he had a job set up,
and so we took him in. And I didn't want to like him, but he's a good kid."
Sadly, it appears Malia and Farquharson split,
since Malia has been linked to record producer Dawit Eklund.
Twenty-one-year-old Sasha Obama has been dating former basketball player Clifton Powell Jr. since
the two reportedly met after she transferred to the University of Southern California,
via Us Weekly. The two were first photographed together in April 2022,
but it's unclear exactly when they began seeing each other. Powell, who works as a
writer and director, is the son of "Rush Hour" and "All Eyez on Me" actor Clifton Powell Sr.
Though both Sasha and Malia Obama have likely been dating for at least a few
years at this point, it seems their parents are
still getting used to it. On the "Ellen DeGeneres Show," Michelle Obama said:
"They loved the Jonas Brothers ... Now they're bringing grown men home. Before it was just
pop bands. Now they have boyfriends and real lives and all that stuff."
Although it may be bittersweet seeing her daughters all grown up,
Michelle is happy that they're learning about what
they want in a partner. She said in a "20/20" special with Robin Roberts,
"I think it's wonderful. I want them to know what they want and
who they are in a relationship. And that takes trying on some people."
In the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum after the murder of
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others by police. The push against police brutality and
the dire need to protect Black lives swept across the United States and even into other countries.
The widespread movement also had some high-profile supporters: Malia Obama and Sasha Obama. Per
USA Today, the siblings participated in protests throughout the summer of 2020,
and Barack Obama expressed how proud he was of his daughters in a conversation with Anderson Cooper.
"What you and I might've tolerated as, 'Yeah, that's sort of how things are.'
They're attitude is, 'Why?'"
Obama explained that his daughters aren't afraid to call out people or institutions
or try to fix the problems they see in the world. And yet, they also have realistic
expectations on the process it takes to solve big problems and the fact that people make mistakes.
"We don't expect everybody to be perfect. We don't expect
everybody to be politically correct all the time."
Despite the stressors that come with being in the public eye, the Obamas appear to be
a pretty close-knit family. One may assume that growing up in a place like the White House and
living a prestigious lifestyle would spoil the siblings, but it appears that quite the opposite
has happened. Reflecting on their time in the presidential home, Barack Obama told People:
"I think we came out of it whole. There were great joys in the White House. There
was never a time where we didn't recognize what an extraordinary privilege it was to
be there. Most importantly, our children emerged intact and they are wonderful,
kind, thoughtful, creative — and not entitled — young women. So that's a big sigh of relief."
"Of all I've done in my life, I'm most proud to be your dad."
And even now that the sisters are older, it seems their bond with their parents
remains strong. On birthdays and holidays, both Michelle and Barack post sentimental photos and
captions expressing their love and support for their daughters. In a recent Instagram post,
Barack Obama shared a snap of him and his family smiling together and wrote:
"Merry Christmas, everybody! One of the best parts of the holiday
season is getting to spend time with the special people in our lives."
Additionally, the fact that the sisters invited their parents to hang out over
martinis at their apartment is a pretty good sign that they're still close to Mom and Dad.
Though the sisters haven't always gotten along,
Malia Obama and Sasha Obama are now as thick as thieves. Michelle Obama said via Page Six,
"The thing that I love the most is that those two girls are each other's best friends."
Barack Obama echoed Michelle's happiness about his daughters' closeness. He told People in 2020,
"Now they're both old enough, where they just enjoy each other's company ... And
to be together as a family and see how they've become these
marvelous young women — there's been no greater joy than that."
It's possible that their unconventional life experiences helped forge such a close
bond between the two sisters, as Michelle Obama told People,
"I think that they realize that they have a unique bond because
they're the only two who know what they just went through. Growing up
in the White House with the brightest spotlight in the world on you as you
were going through adolescence and puberty. They uniquely know what that means for them."