Nobody said raising teenagers was easy, but imagine if you had to do it in the public eye…like from the White House? That’s exactly what Michelle Obama had to do from 2008-2016 when her husband Barack Obama was president. And in a new interview, she revealed one reason why she was worried that her then-teen daughters would end up front page on a tabloid.
The Light We Carry author appeared on today’s episode of Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce (Wave Sports & Entertainment), where she dished on what is was really like having teenagers Malia, now 26, and Sasha, now 23, thrust in the spotlight so young.
“They lived in the White House longer than they lived anywhere.” Michelle told podcast host Kylie Kelce. As teenagers, Michelle said that balancing their safety as daughters of America’s most prominent public official and raising them to be normal teens was hard. “There’s prom, you’ve got to learn how to drive, you have to be normal. You’re going to a party. Was there alcohol? You have agents and now you have a boyfriend.”
“Just the process of making sure they knew how to drive when they had been driven by men in armored cars with guns, because they had full details their whole life,” she explained. “So I’m trying to make sure because at the end of the 8 years, they don’t continue to live that life.”
That would be so difficult! Michelle explained that when they first moved into the White House when Malia and Sasha were 10 and 7 respectively, she focused on making “sure that they’re normal and ready when this is all over.” Michelle added, “I wanted to give my girls enough rope to live and be normal teenagers, but I was also worrying about them turning up on Page Six because they were doing what normal kids would do without that many eyes on them.”
This is something celebrity parents go through too, but as America’s First Family, Michelle and her daughters had the whole world looking at them. Going through a normal teenage rebellion could have international consequences, and that is so much pressure for a parent (not to mention the teens themselves!).
“I was so glad when we got out of the White House [because] I just wanted them to have the freedom of not having the eyes of the world on them,” she added.
This isn’t the first time the Becoming author chatted about her parenting strategy. In an August 2024 interview with Melinda Gates, Michelle admitted she felt like she was raising “people” instead of “babies.” “You start thinking, you know, do I send them off in the world and follow them and fix every problem for them because I don’t want them to hurt?” she reflected. “Well, not seeing your kids hurt, that’s for me. You know, but letting your kids hurt and fail and recover on their own and own their victories, well that’s for them. Because that’s what they’re doing right now, and I’m not with them.”
She has so much wisdom, and this is another example of how doing the right thing in parenting isn’t necessarily the easy thing.
“So I was intentional about understanding that my girls were not gonna be with me forever. So I had to raise them to be stand-up young people on their own, especially as the daughters of a former president,” Michelle added.
Before you go, check out Michelle Obama’s best quotes about being a mom.
