Sasha & Malia Obama's Relationship Has Changed So Much Since the White House

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Barack Obama’s new memoir A Promised Land showcased an even more sensitive side to the former POTUS than we’d known, and he’s full of new details about what it was like watching his daughters Sasha and Malia Obama grow up in the White House those eight years. The only thing he may be better-versed on than his presidency is his daughters, these days, with the COVID-19 pandemic sending him, wife Michelle Obama, and both daughters indoors for the foreseeable future, a dynamic that both parents admit has had many stages. But quarantine cabin fever aside, Sasha, now 19, and Malia, now 22, blew Barack away with how much their relationship has changed since their days as the president’s daughters.

Barack was chatting with People after the release of A Promised Land when he remarked on what impressed him most about his daughters — and reflected on the years of squabbling he’d witnessed firsthand as their dad.

“Malia and Sasha have been with us almost continuously since March, with just a few breaks, Barack said. “I think part of what’s been also wonderful is seeing Malia and Sasha become such great friends. They’ve got a three-year gap between them, and when one is 16 and the other one’s 13, there’s still that sister competition ‘Did you grab my halter top? Where is it? Why haven’t you returned it? Why are you doing this, why are you doing that?'”

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“Now they’re both old enough, where they just enjoy each other’s company,” Obama continued, Obama says, “and to be together as a family and see how they’ve become these marvelous young women — there’s been no greater joy than that.”

There’s definitely a beat that happens between the teen years when you can’t stand your family and the years when you cherish them and hold them close, and it sounds like Malia and Sasha are right on schedule for a more mature return to the nest. As for fighting over halter tops? As anyone with a sister knows, Barack is lucky if that’s the worst he witnessed.

Before you go, click here to see photos of Sasha and Malia Obama growing up before our eyes.

Malia and Sasha Obama
Malia and Sasha Obama

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