Former First Lady Michelle Obama says she’s “so glad” none of her children was a boy because that hypothetical child would’ve carried a heavy burden — his famous father’s name.
Speaking on her “IMO” podcast alongside radio host Angie Martinez and her brother, Craig Robinson, the ex-first lady was discussing the challenges of raising boys in today’s society when she exclaimed: “I’m so glad I didn’t have a boy.”
When Martinez asked why she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, didn’t try for a son to complement their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, Obama replied: “Because he would’ve been a Barack Obama!”
Martinez said a “baby Barack” would’ve been “amazing,” at which point the former First Lady said she “would’ve felt for him,” referring to the hypothetical son under discussion.
Robinson, the current executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, jumped in by stating that his sister and her husband “just borrowed our boys,” referring to the children he has had from his two marriages over the years.
The former first lady’s relief at not having had a male child stems from the fact that her husband, whose full name is Barack Hussein Obama II, would have likely elected to name him Barack Obama III.
The 44th president, who was the first Black person to serve as America’s chief executive, was named for his father, Barack Hussein Obama.
The elder Obama was a Kenyan economist and government official who met the future president’s mother, anthropologist Stanley Ann Dunham, while they were both studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the 1960s.
The Obamas have been the subject of divorce rumors for several months following Michelle’s absence from a handful of high-profile events at the start of the year, including former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
She recently opened up about her decision to skip the events in an April episode of IMO.
“My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don’t realize, or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she said. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, you know.”
She reiterated that she simply didn’t go to the inauguration because it was the best decision for her.
“I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me,” she explained. “And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me. That was a hard thing for me to do.”
The former First Lady also spoke about the divorce rumors during an appearance on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast earlier in April.
“The interesting thing is that, when I say ‘no,’ for the most part people are like, ‘I get it, and I’m OK,’” she said.
“That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?” she added. “But that’s what society does to us. We start actually, finally going, ‘What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?’ And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.”
