Michelle Obama Says Keeping Malia Obama and Sasha Obama’s Smoking Out of Tabloids Was “Nightmare”

Michelle Obama had to take extra care when her kids were becoming adults. 

The former first lady of the United States revealed that keeping her and husband Barack Obama‘s daughters Malia Obama, 26, and Sasha Obama, 23, out of the tabloids during his presidency became especially challenging when they entered their teenage years. 

“That was a lot of work,” Michelle told Kelly Ripa during an April 29 appearance on SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, “and it got harder as they got older.”

For the 61-year-old, it was normal for Malia and Sasha—who were 10 and 7, respectively, when Barack took office in 2008—to dive into new experiences as they grew up, but she knew the public might not see it that way. 

“They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams and they traveled to other schools and they had to do college searches, and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things,” Michelle recalled, “and every weekend was a nightmare, because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn’t wind up on Page Six.”