Michelle Obama is a doting mum to daughters Malia and Sasha, and has worked hard to allow her girls to enjoy a private life out of the spotlight, despite their parents’ high-profile positions.
But while they are both now studying at university like many other young adults, things were a lot harder when Barack Obama was in office at the White House.
Michelle opened up about the worries she faced raising her girls in the public eye during Oprah Winfrey’s Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus tour in February.
The doting mum explained: “Every weekend was hard following these little girls around. We had to worry about what parties they were going to, whether there was alcohol, I had to know who the parents were, so every weekend for me was hard.”
Michelle also told Oprah the advice she always tells her girls. “What I tell them is… that they have to walk their own walk,” she said. “They cannot define themselves by looking at each other or looking at me or their dad.
“They have to take the time to get to know themselves – give themselves a moment to figure out who they want to be in the world, not who they think I want them to be, not what the rest of the world says about them, but to really think about how they want to shape their lives and how they want to move in this world.”
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, both Malia and Sasha were away at university. Malia is studying at Harvard and Sasha is in her first year at the University of Michigan.
Now, the family are all back together at their home in Washington, where they were quarantining together. The family have a beautiful Tudor home, complete with a roof terrace and a sprawling garden.
Sasha is even lucky enough to have her own suite in the house, complete with a separate living area.
Michelle opened up about her daughter’s room during an interview on Ellen in 2018, telling host Ellen DeGeneres: “Sasha actually killed in this house. She has a two-room suite, it’s all decked out. She has like a living room area and a bedroom.”
What’s more, Sasha even designed it herself. While Sasha has the best deal in the room department, her dad didn’t get quite so lucky.
“He’s got the smallest room for his office. So he’s really hating on her,” Michelle joked.