Barack Obama has shared his advice on dating after being married to his wife, Michelle, for over 30 years.
On Tuesday, during an episode of Michelle’s IMO podcast with her brother, Craig Robinson, the two spoke with the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, about how he built his business from the ground up, including the mentorship he received from the former president along the way.
Over the years, Chesky and Barack became close enough that they started discussing their personal lives, like the unsuccessful dates the CEO was going on.
“One time I was like — I met somebody and I was about to go on a date with — I went on a date with them and I remember telling him like, ‘Oh my God, she checks all the boxes and like this, this, this, this, this,’” he told Michelle and Robinson. “And I remember him saying something. He said, it's not a checklist.”
Chesky explained that he never considered that he had adopted this mindset until after Barack pointed out what he should really be looking for in a long-term partner.
“He's like, the right person is someone where they've got this weird laugh or snort and you find it really funny,” he continued. “And it's like, in other words, it's not necessarily what you think you're looking for. And you're not dating a checklist, you're dating a real person. And the real person makes you feel a certain way.”
“I think it was like a really, really important piece of advice,” he added.
The former president’s dating advice comes after his wife was forced to address divorce rumors following her absence at several notable events.
The rumors first started when Barack attended former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral without his wife in January. Then, days later, Michelle confirmed she wouldn’t attend Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration.
Speaking on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast last month, Michelle touched on the rumors. “The interesting thing is that, when I say ‘no,’ for the most part people are like, ‘I get it,’” 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.”
