Barack Obama Says Daughters Malia and Sasha ‘Go Out of Their Way’ Not to Benefit From His Name: ‘They’re not….see more

Former President Barack Obama said his daughters Malia and Sasha Obama are adamant about not using their famous family lineage as they develop their professional careers.

“[Malia’s] first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals, and she didn’t use Obama on the, as director, in the credits it said Malia Ann. She used her middle name and didn’t put Obama on there,” Obama shared during an appearance on the sports and entertainment podcast “The Pivot.”

At the time, cohost Ryan Clark asked Obama how he encourages his daughters to achieve success on their own without using the Obama family name. Contrary to the implication of the question, Obama said his children avoid receiving any assistance from him or their mother Michelle Obama.

The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all. I mean, they, they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it,” Obama said, adding that he’s inquired with Malia about her decision use just her first and middle name for her flick.

“I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are.’ And she’s all like, ‘You know what, I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association. So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that,” Obama explained.

Obama then reflected on the time when he was heavily involved in politics, sharing that he told media to not bother his girls.

“Growing up the press was pretty good — I basically made a deal with the press pool, the White House press Corp, and I said, ‘You can follow me around, you can talk about me, you do whatever you need to do, leave my children alone because they have the right to grow up. They didn’t choose this. Let them grow up,’” Obama said. “And to the credit of the press, they did leave them alone. Now as they’ve gotten older there’s been some paparazzi stuff going on, and it drives them nuts because their attitude is we’re not looking for all that. So they’re grounded.”

We got to see the first glimpse of Malia branching out beyond her last name when she helped pen Donald Glover’s hit Prime Video thriller “Swarm.” She was credited on the show, which was her writing debut, under the name Malia Ann.