Michelle Obama on the ‘Nightmare’ of Shielding Malia and Sasha From Tabloids in the White House

Michelle Obama reflected on the experience of raising her daughters, Malia and Sasha, during former President Barack Obama’s time in office. In a new interview on Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, Michelle detailed the great lengths she went to keep their activities out of the press.

The former first lady explained that she and Barack tried to give their kids as much normalcy as possible despite Barack’s public-facing position. “That was a lot of work,” she said. “And it got harder as they got older.”

Malia and Sasha were 10 and 7 years old when their father took office in 2008. As they grew up, their mother said 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.”

“Every weekend was a nightmare,” Michelle added, “because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn’t wind up on Page Six.”

Michelle also described how even the simplest parts of parenting, like letting her kids go to a friend’s house, required extraordinary steps. “When your kids are under the security of the Secret Service, you almost have to work twice as hard to make their life normal,” she said. “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."

Now that Malia and Sasha are adults, Michelle said her focus has shifted. “We call that the Obama tax for them. You’ll have it the rest of your life, but you also have a lot of benefits.”

“I’m trying to make this feel normal to them,” she continued, “because you don’t want them to start thinking, number one, they’re full of themselves, that any of this is about them and that their job is to go about their lives. This world is not about you. This is just your dad’s job.”

You can listen to Michelle’s full conversation with Kelly Ripa on Let’s Talk Off Camera here.

Since leaving the White House in 2017, Michelle has spoken openly about prioritizing her mental health and adjusting to life beyond politics. On a recent episode of her podcast, IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, she shared: “My girls, thank God, are whole. But what happened to me? Going through therapy is getting me to look at the fact that maybe, maybe finally I’m good enough.”