Michelle Obama's advice to her daughters: date a lot

BarcelonaThe advice Michelle Obama gives her daughters Sasha and Malia on finding love is simple: have a very active love life. "I just want them to be open to people," Obama explained in an episode of the podcast. IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. "What I did was go on a lot of dates. When Barack came along, I had experiences to compare him to." The Obamas met in 1988 and married in 1992.

"Barack and I often talk about our experiences with other couples," explains Michelle Obama. "And we try to educate the girls by sharing this accumulated experience. And my advice is to go out with a lot of people, and if you have a bad date or are having a bad time, let it go right away. If it doesn't work out, move on to the next one."

When Obama met her future husband, she was a first-year associate at a Chicago law firm and he was a law student. "All the partners on the Harvard recruiting team were talking about this brilliant freshman," recalls Michelle Obama, who obtained the file with the future president's resume. "I was like, 'Ugh, what kind of name is Barack Obama?' The image I had in my head was of some kind of geek."

Her opinion changed when she spoke to him on the phone. "His voice was sexier than the image I had of him. He was older and confident. The conversation was very pleasant, but his photo wasn't that great, so I still couldn't hear anything." The turning point in their relationship came when they went to breakfast together: "He was much more handsome in person; the photo didn't do him justice, so I was pleasantly surprised by his attractiveness. We really connected over that breakfast and had a great conversation. The spark started there."

Malia, the Obamas' eldest daughter, 26, studied at Harvard, like her father, and is a screenwriter and director. In 2024, she premiered a short film at Sundance, and for her audiovisual projects she uses her second surname, Ann. Sasha, the Obamas' youngest, is 23 years old and just graduated with a degree in sociology from the University of Southern California, where her mother studied. Malia is single, while Sasha is dating Clifton Powell Jr., son of actor Clifton Powell.