Michelle Obama reveals the personality trait that made her fall in love with Barack

‘You’re cute you know,’ former first lady tells husband in first publicised one-to-one conversation

Sabrina Barr
Wednesday 29 July 2020 15:45 BST
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(Getty Images)

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Michelle Obama has spoken about how she knew she had fallen in love with Barack Obama on the first episode of her new podcast.

Earlier this month, it was announced that the former US first lady was going to be launching a new podcast on Spotify, named The Michelle Obama Podcast.

Soon afterwards, it emerged that Michelle’s first guest would be none other than her husband, former US president Barack.

For the debut episode of the podcast, the globally recognisable couple sat down for their first ever publicised one-to-one conversation.

They covered several topics during their 48-minute chat, including how young people approach politics; raising their daughters Malia and Sasha; and what it has been like to quarantine together amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Obamas also took a fond look back at the beginning of their relationship, having first met in 1989 while both working at a law firm in Chicago.

Michelle explained that the reason she fell in love with Barack was due to the way in which he perceived other people.

She began by saying: “You know at the core of everything you have done politically, what I know about you as a person and one of the reasons why I fell in love with you is...”

At this point, her husband interjected to quip: “It wasn’t just my looks, but that’s okay,” to which Michelle replied: “You’re cute you know.”

The Becoming author then continued, stating: “But no, one of the reasons I fell in love with you is because you are guided by the principle that we are each other’s brother’s and sister’s keepers. And that’s how I was raised.”

Speaking of the values that she holds dear in her life, Michelle said that she believes “it is not enough that I succeed on my own”, highlighting the importance of wishing success and happiness for others as well.

“I can say that my family, my neighbourhood, my notions of community growing up shaped that view, and shaped the choices that I made in life as I felt your experiences shaped yours,” she said to Barack.

During their sit-down conversation, the former residents of the White House touched upon how they would like to leave the world for their daughters, 22-year-old Malia and 19-year-old Sasha.

They expressed their hope that their daughters live “in a country that respects everybody and looks after everybody. Celebrates and sees everybody”.

“They’ll be fine. Right?” Barack said, to which Michelle replied: “Yeah. That’s absolutely right.”

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