Former President Barack Obama reacts to Malia Obama dropping last name professionally

Originally appeared on E! Online

Barack Obama understands why Malia Obama wanted a stage name.

When debuting her film "The Heart" at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in February, the 26-year-old daughter of the former president and Michelle Obama opted to drop the last name Obama, instead using her middle name and going by Malia Ann. And according to Obama — who is also dad to Sasha Obama, 23 — her choice didn't surprise him.

"The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all," Obama confessed on the Oct. 29 episode of "The Pivot Podcast". "I mean they're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."

When he saw that Malia was choosing to be credited without her last name, he warned her that people would still know they were related.

"I was all like, ‘You do know they'll know who you are,'" the 63-year-old explained. "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."

But still, Barack has noticed that his daughters have gained more public attention since entering adulthood and exploring their passions.

"Now, as they've gotten older, there's been some paparazzi stuff going on, and it drives them nuts," he said, "because their attitude is, ‘We're not looking for all that.' So they're grounded."

For Obama and the former first lady — who are also working in Hollywood with their film company "Higher Ground Productions"— making sure that Malia and Sasha were able to have a semi-normal childhood was very important, with him explaining one of the reasons he was hesitant to run for office in the first place was the fear that their daughters might "end up weird."

But he was thankful that for the majority of his presidency, the White House press pool kept their focus on him, and left his daughters alone.

"I basically made a deal with the press pool," he explained. "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.' And to the credit of the press they did leave them alone."

And now that they're grown, the 44th President can't help but brag about the way his daughters turned out, gushing that Malia's film was in "all these fancy film festivals," and that she'd had the opportunity to work with incredible talent like Donald Glover. He was especially proud of how Malia and Sasha have matured, despite the difficulties of being famous at a young age.

"They've turned out amazing," he said with a smile. "I can't brag about them enough."

And Obama isn't the only one boasting about Malia. Glover — who also produced Malia's "The Heart" — had only incredible things to say about working with her when she was a staff writer on his Amazon Prime show "Swarm."

"I feel like she's just somebody who's gonna have really good things coming soon," he told Vanity Fair in March 2022. "Her writing style is great. We can't be easy on her just because she's the [former] president's daughter."