Barack Obama has been the President of the United States for two terms and has written two best-selling books, yet he still admits that it would be a struggle for him to raise a son.
The former president, 63, will be a guest on his wife Michelle Obama’s IMO podcast alongside her older brother Craig Robinson. The episode will premiere on Wednesday. People obtained preview ahead of its release, where the couple discussed raising their two daughters, Sasha, 24, and Malia, 27.
“I think we did a pretty good job of raising our girls, but I've said often that I think I would have had more difficulty raising a son,” Barack said, to which Michelle replied, “I agree.”
“I think I might've been more judgmental, harder, and I would've tried to — I'd like to think I would have been more self-aware enough to combat that, but I just think father-son relationships, for me, particularly if I don't have a dad around to show it to me, might've been more difficult,” the former president added.
Barack has previously opened up about the minimal presence his father had in his own life, as he was born in Hawaii and raised by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, after his parents divorced when he was two years old.
This is not the first time Barack and Michelle have addressed a hypothetical son. Last month, during a different episode of her IMO podcast, the former first lady said she was “so glad” she didn’t have a boy.
When the guest that week, radio host Angie Martinez, asked why she and Barack didn’t try for a son to complement their two daughters, 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.
Her 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.
Wednesday’s upcoming podcast episode also saw Barack speak about how raising men can affect others. “If you're not thinking about what's happening to boys and how are they being raised, then that can actually hurt women,” Barack said.
“We rightly have tried to invest in girls to make sure that there's a level playing field and they're not barred from opportunities,” he continued. “We haven't been as willing, I think, to be intentional about investing in the boys, and that's been a mistake.”
