NEWSBarack Obama Admits He Worried His 2 Daughters Would Become 'Weird' From Growing Up in the White House — But 'They Turned Out Amazing'
Barack Obama got candid about raising his two daughters in the White House.
Barack Obama gave the scoop on what it was like to have two young daughters while acting as the president of the United States.
On the Wednesday, October 29, episode of "The Pivot Podcast," the politician confessed that for a long time, he was worried Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, would "end up weird" due to their formative years of growing up taking place in the White House.
Barack Obama admitted he used to worry that growing up in the White House would make his daughters 'weird.'
Fortunately, that never happened, as the dad-of-two — who was the commander-in-chief from 2009 to 2017 — spilled, "They've turned out amazing. I can't brag about them enough."
The 44th POTUS explained that both of his and wife Michelle Obama's girls have stayed "grounded" despite growing up in the spotlight, though they aren't big fans of being famous.
The dad-of-two raved over how 'amazing' both of his and wife Michelle's girls turned out.
"There's been some paparazzi stuff going on, and it drives them nuts, because their attitude is, 'We're not looking for all that,'" Barack, 63, said.
The Hawaii native noted that the press was "actually pretty good" to his children as they grew up — something he really has himself to thank for.
"I basically made a deal with the press pool — the White House press core — I said, ‘You can follow me around. You can talk about me. You do whatever you need to do. Leave my children alone because they have the right to grow up. They didn't choose this. Let them grow up,'" he recalled. "And to the credit of the press, they did leave them alone."
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
The former president noted that his daughters get annoyed by the paparazzi attention.
Elsewhere in the podcast, the former president was asked about Malia's decision to drop her last name from her moniker and go professionally by Malia Ann.
"I was all like, ‘You do know they'll know who you are.' And she's all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association,'" he stated. "So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that."
The Democrat has been back in the spotlight lately to campaign for Kamala Harris.
Barack noted that his youngest daughter also doesn't want to rely on her famous parents to succeed in life.
"The challenge for [Michelle and me] is letting us give them any help at all," he admitted. "They're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."
Malia, a Hollywood writer and director, debuted her new professional name when the flick The Heart debuted earlier this year.
Malia graduated from Harvard University in 2021, while Sasha graduated from USC in 2023.
