Michelle Obama spoke candidly about her eldest daughter Malia dropping her last name to forge her own path towards success.
During an interview on the Sibling Revelry podcast, the former first lady told hosts Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson why her daughter wanted to ditch her widely recognizable last name.
The mother-of-two admitted she had a
slightly skeptical reaction at first, but she understood why her 26-year-old daughter wanted to distance herself from the world-famous parents.
Michelle Obama spoke candidly about her eldest daughter Malia dropping her last name
“I mean, it is very important for my kids to feel like they’ve earned what they are getting in the world, and they don’t want people to assume that they don’t work hard, that they’re just naturally, just handed things,” Michelle told the Hudson siblings.
“They’re very sensitive to that — they want to be their own people,” she added.
Malia and her little sister Sasha were only 10 and 7 when their father was first elected to the White House. He served two terms as the US president.
The two daughters “didn’t want to be little princesses in the White House” and wanted to “push the envelope,” Michelle said on the recent podcast episode.
Malia chose the name “Malia Ann” for the credits of her short film The Heart
The former first daughter is currently paving her path as a filmmaker and had dropped her last name for the credits of her short film The Heart, which aired at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024.
She simply went with her first name Malia and middle name Ann.
Ann is the name of the former US president’s late mother, Ann Dunham, who passed away in 1995.
@vanityfairfrance Malia Ann, la fille de Barack Obama, est la lauréate du prix Nouvelle génération du @Festival de Deauville . Elle nous parle de son court-métrage « The Heart », sa première réalisation. #maliaobama #maliaann #deauville2024 #barackobama ♬ son original – Vanity Fair France
Michelle said she wasn’t sure about Malia dropping her last name but still “respected” her daughter’s choice.
“We were like, ‘they’re still going to know it’s you, Malia,’” she said. “But we respected the fact that she’s trying to make her way.”
“We respected the fact that she’s trying to make her way,” the mother-of-two said
Image credits: Sundance Institute
The Becoming author believed that Kate and her brother Oliver might relate to Malia and Sasha’s circumstances since they were born to Oscar-winner Goldie Hawn and actor Bill Hudson.
They are also stepkids to actor Kurt Russell.
“They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away. … They’re still doing that,” the former first lady explained.
“You guys know this as the children of parents who are known,” she added. “You know, you’re trying to distinguish yourself.”
Michelle spoke about her daughters to Oliver and Kate Hudson on the Sibling Revelry podcast
The lawyer and philanthropist believes her daughters now understand her and her husband’s parenting decisions since they are older now.
“As they’re older, I think they are embracing our parenting principles … They have a clearer understanding of why we did a lot of what we did,” she said.
“They understand us as full human beings now, in the same way that I think I discovered that about my parents when I went away to college,” she continued.
Michelle’s comments came months after her husband Barack spoke about his own thoughts on Malia’s decision to drop her last name.
Barack Obama also shared his thoughts a few months back on Malia ditching her last name
“I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are,’” Barack said on The Pivot Podcast in October 2024.
“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,” the former president said.
Image credits: The Pivot Podcast
He admitted that his daughters are “very stubborn” about it that they might not accept any help from them.
“The challenge for [Michelle and me] is letting us give them any help at all,” he added. “I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.”
Malia’s short film The Heart aired at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024
Malia spoke about her debut short film The Heart last year and called it a story “about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret.”
“But I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things,” she said in a Meet the Artist video from the Sundance Film Festival.
Image credits: TIFF Trailers
Michelle previously spoke about how she tried to ensure her daughters did their chores even while growing up in the White House.
“I also had to beg the housekeepers, ‘These girls need to learn how to clean their own rooms and make their beds and do their laundry. You cannot do this every day because they will not live here forever, and I am not raising kids who don’t know how to make a bed,’”’ the mother told TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager in 2018.
Michelle previously said she begged the housekeepers at the White House to let her daughters do their own chores
She also said at the time that she wanted to give her daughters a life that was as normal as possible, with the space to “fail and stumble privately, like any other kids.”
“When they’re not allowed to do that, it’s unfair and you feel guilty about it, you know, because they didn’t choose this life,” she added.
“It is a shame because Obama is a great name,” one commented online about Malia’s decision
