Michelle Obama

She was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, on Chicago’s South Side, to Fraser and Marian Robinson. The biography page of the Barack Obama Presidential Library gives her birthplace as “DeYoung, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is a state of the United States that borders Lake Michigan and the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa; its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as the 21st state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 12,812,508.Open the full entry” and her parents’ names as Frasier Robinson III and Marian Shields.⁠[1][2][3]

Her father, Fraser Robinson, was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department and a Democratic precinct captain; he had multiple sclerosis but rarely missed work.⁠[1][4]

Her mother, Marian Lois Shields Robinson, was born in Chicago on July 30, 1937, one of seven children; she attended two years of teachers’ college and married in 1960. She stayed at home with the children until her daughter entered high school, and later retired from a job as a bank secretary.⁠[4][1]

She grew up with her older brother, Craig Robinson, in a one-bedroom apartment whose living room was divided down the middle to serve as the children’s bedroom; the family stressed honesty, hard work and education, and both children could read by the age of four. The Barack Obama Presidential Library’s biography page states that she grew up in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.⁠[1][3]

She attended Chicago Public Schools, skipped the second grade and entered a gifted program in the sixth grade. For high school she attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Chicago’s first magnet school for gifted children, and graduated as salutatorian of her class in 1981.⁠[1][3]

The Miller Center biography states that she was at first discouraged from applying to Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry but followed her brother there. 77 percent of her Class of 1985 was white and 63 percent of undergraduates were men; her entering class of 1,141 included 94 Black students.⁠[1][5][6]

Her brother, Craig Robinson, of the Class of 1983, played basketball at Princeton under coach Pete Carril and was a co-captain of the team.⁠[5]

The Daily Princetonian writes that she did not join an eating club but took her meals at the student-run Stevenson Hall, and that her roommate was her classmate Angela Acree; she spent much of her free time at the Third World Center (now the Carl Fields Center), where for all four years she held a work-study job every afternoon in an after-school program for the children of University workers. Czerni Brasuell, the center’s director at the time, recalled: “Not a day went by that I did not see Michelle at the Center.”⁠[6][7]

In 1983 she was elected member-at-large of the Third World Center’s Governance Board; she served on the Undergraduate Student Government’s Standing Committee on Race Relations, was makeup designer for the Center-Stage production of The Wiz, and took part in the fundraising fashion shows “A Parade of Fashion” and “Secret Fantasy.”⁠[7]

Her senior thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” was a survey of the attitudes and activities of Black Princeton alumni after Princeton. Her initial hypothesis was not fully supported, so she proposed that Black students identified more with Black culture at Princeton than before and less afterward, and found that cultural identification was independent of support for advancing the Black community. The African-American Studies program gave the thesis an honorable mention, and sociology professor emeritus Howard Taylor was one of its advisers; in its introduction she wrote: “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before.”⁠[3][5][6]

In 1985 she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in sociology and a minor in African-American Studies; 44 percent of her class graduated with honors. In 2005 Howard Taylor invited her to serve on the sociology department’s advisory council, and she accepted.⁠[3][2][5][6]

She was again discouraged when she applied to Harvard Law School; she graduated in 1988 with a Juris Doctor degree.⁠[1][2]

After law school she joined the Chicago corporate law firm Sidley & Austin, where she specialized in entertainment law.⁠[3][1]

In the summer of 1989 the firm assigned her as adviser to a summer associate, Barack Obama. She at first turned down his request for a date but later agreed; the Miller Center biography states that he proposed two years later. In her memoir she says she at first insisted that they remain friends, until he kissed her one night.⁠[1][3][8][9]

Her father, Fraser Robinson, died in 1991. The Miller Center biography states that in 1992, shortly after her father’s death, she left corporate law for public service, first as an assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and then as assistant commissioner of planning and development for the city; the Barack Obama Presidential Library’s biography page instead states that she left Sidley & Austin in 1993 and then worked for the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and for Public Allies.⁠[4][1][3]

On October 3, 1992, she married Barack Obama at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Her brother, Craig Robinson, wrote in his memoir, A Game of Character, that their parents doubted the relationship would last and that their mother gave it six months.⁠[2][3][4]

In 1993 she became executive director of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program started under President Bill ClintonBill ClintonBill Clinton (born 1946) is an American politician and lawyer, a Democrat who served as attorney general and governor of Arkansas and as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.Open the full entry that trains young adults for careers in public service. She founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies.⁠[1][10]

In 1996 she joined the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services and developed the university’s first community service program; the Barack Obama Presidential Library’s biography page gives the title as Associate Dean of Students and states that she was also director of the University Community Student Center.⁠[1][3]

In 2002 she became executive director of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals (the Barack Obama Presidential Library gives the title as Director of Community Affairs), and in 2005 she became vice president of community relations and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center.⁠[1][3]

When Barack Obama announced his run for president in 2007, she cut back her working hours and campaigned across the country, but limited her time away from home to two days a week, with her mother helping to care for the children.⁠[1]

On February 18, 2008, she said at an event in Milwaukee: “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country,” tying that pride to people being “hungry for change.” Cindy McCain, wife of the Republican contender John McCain, responded: “I have, and always will be, proud of my country.” Asked by WJAR-TV whether she wished to clarify, she explained: “What I was clearly talking about was that I’m proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process”; Barack Obama also said her remarks had been taken out of context.⁠[11]

In her memoir published in 2018 she writes that during the campaign she was called unpatriotic and an “angry black woman,” and that “female, black and strong” was translated into “angry.”⁠[9]

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention she was introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson, and gave an address.⁠[3]

In January 2009 she moved into the White House with Barack Obama and became First Lady of the United States; the Obamas were the first African American family to live in the White House.⁠[2][1]

She expressed interest in focusing attention on women’s efforts to balance work and family, and said: “My first priority will always be to make sure that our girls are healthy and grounded.” She called herself “Mom-in-Chief” to her daughters.⁠[1][2]

Her mother, Marian Robinson, moved into the White House with the family and lived on the third floor; she had at first resisted the move, and Michelle Obama enlisted Craig to help persuade her. Her mother later travelled with her to France (2009, her mother’s first trip abroad), Russia, Italy and Ghana, and went with her and the granddaughters to South Africa and Botswana in 2011 and to China in 2014.⁠[4][1]

In 2009 she planted a kitchen garden on the South Lawn of the White House, the first there since Eleanor RooseveltEleanor RooseveltEleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 as the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president, and later a United States delegate to the United Nations and chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Open the full entry’s Victory Garden during World War II; its harvests were cooked in the White House kitchen and donated to Miriam’s Kitchen, a Washington, D.C., organization serving the homeless.⁠[3][2]

In 2012 she published American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, about the garden and gardens across the country; the book was nominated for the GRAMMY for Best Spoken Word Album in 2013.⁠[3][12]

As First Lady she focused on childhood nutrition and exercise, military families and LGBT rights. Her Reach Higher initiative encouraged students to pursue education beyond high school, whether training programs, community college or university; Let Girls Learn was an international program to help adolescent girls around the world get a quality education, drawing on the resources of the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the Peace Corps, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and PEPFAR.⁠[1][3]

She led the renovation of the State Dining Room and the Family Dining Room and unveiled the first painting by a Black woman in the White House Collection, Alma Thomas’s Resurrection; the Obamas chose modern and abstract works for the collection, including pieces by Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Josef Albers, and hosted musicians from pop, rock, jazz, musical theater and other genres.⁠[2]

On February 9, 2010, she launched the Let’s Move! campaign against childhood obesity, which she called one of the “most serious threats” to children’s future, with the goal of solving the problem within a generation so that children then being born would reach adulthood at a healthy weight. Its measures included better meals and snacks in school cafeterias, supermarkets in underserved “food deserts,” and more physical activity through the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge; the same day Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum creating the Task Force on Childhood Obesity.⁠[13][3]

In 2011 she and Second Lady Jill Biden launched Joining Forces, which rallied citizens and organizations to support service members, veterans and their families through employment, education and wellness.⁠[3][2]

In May 2015 she and Barack Obama formally announced that the presidential library would be built in Chicago. In the video announcing the decision, Barack Obama said the South Side was where the couple met, fell in love, married and had their children.⁠[14]

On July 25, 2016, she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, saying that the election was about who would have the power to shape children’s lives for the next four or eight years and that Clinton was the only person she trusted with that responsibility. She said: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves”; on teaching children to respond to cruelty and bullying she said: “our motto is, when they go low, we go high”; and she concluded: “And that’s why, in this election, I’m with her.”⁠[15]

Barack Obama’s presidency ended in January 2017 and she left the White House. She has since continued to support young people and military families and works with the Obama Foundation and the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago; she championed the education of girls and women around the world, work that continues at the Obama Foundation through the Girls Opportunity Alliance.⁠[16][2][10]

The Girls Opportunity Alliance seeks to empower and educate adolescent girls around the world by connecting leaders, strengthening grassroots organizations and using public awareness; it runs a crowdsourcing platform that funds projects of grassroots organizations worldwide. On the International Day of the Girl she announced a new commitment by the Alliance to support organizations that educate, empower and advocate for adolescent girls.⁠[17]

In 2018 Amy Sherald painted her portrait (oil on linen, about 192.6 × 162.1 cm framed), which belongs to the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is a museum, education and research institution created by the U.S. Congress in 1846 with the bequest of the English scientist James Smithson. Based in Washington, D.C., it runs museums such as the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, as well as the National Zoo.Open the full entry as a gift of many individual donors, galleries and foundations; the catalog record gives the place as Baltimore, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry. Sherald had won the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition; the museum’s label describes the portrait as showing her as “both confident and approachable.”⁠[8]

In 2018 she founded When We All Vote, a national nonpartisan initiative, and is one of its co-chairs, alongside Stephen Curry, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Shonda RhimesShonda RhimesShonda Rhimes is an American screenwriter, producer, and chief executive officer of Shondaland who created Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal and produces series, films, and other content through her partnership with Netflix. She is also a minority owner of Los Angeles Golf Club, a trustee of Dartmouth College, and the founder of the Rhimes Foundation.Open the full entry, Kerry Washington and others, all serving as volunteers. It focuses on young people aged 18 to 34, especially Black voters and other voters of color, and aims to increase participation in every election and close the race and age gaps in voting; it is an initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The organization says that in 2020 its voter education and registration outreach reached more than 100 million people and that 512,000 people started or completed a voter registration.⁠[18]

On May 21, 2018, Netflix announced a multi-year agreement with Barack Obama and her under which Higher Ground Productions, the company they formed for the purpose, would produce scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix. She said that the two had long believed in “the power of storytelling to inspire us” and called Netflix “a natural fit for the kinds of stories we want to share”; Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted SarandosTed SarandosTed Sarandos is an American entertainment executive and co-chief executive officer of Netflix. He joined Netflix in 2000, long oversaw its content business, drove the company’s development of original film and television programming, and became co-chief executive officer in 2020.Open the full entry, called their abilities “formidable.”⁠[19]

Her memoir, Becoming, was published by Crown on November 13, 2018; it tells of her journey from the South Side of Chicago to becoming a lawyer and then First Lady of the United States. It was her half of a two-book deal between the Obamas and Penguin Random HousePenguin Random HousePenguin Random House is a trade book publishing group headquartered in New York City. It was formed on July 1, 2013, by combining Bertelsmann’s Random House with Pearson’s Penguin, and has been wholly owned by Bertelsmann since 2020. Its roots include Random House, which grew out of Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer’s 1925 purchase of The Modern Library and became a general publisher in 1927, and Penguin Books, founded by Allen Lane in 1935. The group operates in more than 20 countries with more than 300 imprints, including Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday, Viking, Dutton, Penguin Press, Crown and Ballantine Books, and had revenue of €4.981 billion in 2025. In 2022 a U.S. federal court blocked its planned acquisition of Simon & Schuster on antitrust grounds. Its chief executive is Nihar Malaviya.Open the full entry, reportedly worth more than $60 million, a record for U.S. presidential memoirs.⁠[9][20][12][21]

In the book she writes that Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDonald Trump (born 1946) is an American politician and businessman, a Republican who ran the real estate company the Trump Organization and starred in the television series The Apprentice. He served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and has been the 47th president since 2025.Open the full entry’s spreading of the “birther” claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya was reckless and put her family’s safety at risk: “And for this I’d never forgive him.” She also describes Trump following Hillary Clinton around the stage during the 2016 presidential debates, trying to diminish her presence, and writes that she was shocked to learn Trump would succeed her husband and tried to “block it all out.” She says she has “never been a fan of politics” and is unlikely to run for office.⁠[9]

Becoming was a New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American morning daily newspaper published in New York City. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company.Open the full entry Notable Book of the Year and USA TODAYUSA TODAYUSA TODAY is a national general-interest daily newspaper and news brand in the United States. Founded under the leadership of Allen Neuharth and first published on September 15, 1982, it is known for its color pages, short stories, and abundant graphics. It is now published by USA TODAY Co. (formerly Gannett) and is the national flagship brand of the USA TODAY Network, and its brands also include the sports brand USA TODAY Sports.Open the full entry’s No. 1 Book of the Year, was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and won an NAACPNAACPThe NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is an American civil rights organization founded in 1909, which the Library of Congress describes as the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.Open the full entry Image Award, had been translated into 50 languages, and by 2025 had sold more than 18 million units in all formats worldwide, including more than 10 million of the U.S. edition.⁠[21]

In 2020 she launched her first podcast, The Michelle Obama Podcast. That year she also addressed the Democratic National Convention, saying that Donald Trump “is clearly in over his head.”⁠[22][23]

On January 26, 2020, at the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles, the 19-hour audiobook of Becoming, read by herself, won Best Spoken Word Album; the other nominees included Beastie Boys Book and John Waters’s Mr. Know-It-All. Produced by Dan Zitt, the audiobook was released by Penguin Random House Audio in November 2018 and spent fourteen consecutive months on The New York Times audio bestseller list, seven of them at No. 1. She said she “had plenty of doubts” about sharing so much of herself in the book, and that the moment reminded her that owning the truth of who she is helps her connect with others.⁠[12][20]

After the memoir’s publication she undertook a 34-city tour. On April 27, 2020, Netflix and Higher Ground Productions announced the original documentary Becoming, directed by Nadia Hallgren, which follows her on the 34-city tour and highlights the power of community to bridge divides; it was released globally on Netflix on May 6, 2020. In a note on Netflix’s announcement page she wrote: “Empathy is our lifeline here.”⁠[24]

On March 16, 2021, Waffles + Mochi, a children’s show made with the Partnership for a Healthier America to encourage healthy eating, premiered on Netflix. It follows two puppets learning to cook fresh food from around the world, with her helping them, and travels to Japan, Peru and Seoul, among other places, with guests including Samin Nosrat and Zach Galifianakis. She starred in the show and was an executive producer; the series is from Higher Ground Productions, and the Partnership for a Healthier America is a nonprofit created in conjunction with Let’s Move! She said: “I’m excited for families and children everywhere to join us on our adventures.”⁠[25][26]

On September 7, 2022, Joe BidenJoe BidenJoe Biden (born 1942) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. He was previously a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and the 47th vice president, under Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017.Open the full entry hosted a ceremony in the East Room of the White House to unveil the official portraits of Barack Obama and her, welcoming them with “Barack and Michelle, welcome home.” Her portrait, by Sharon Sprung, shows her seated on a sofa in the Red Room in a formal light blue dress; Sprung had planned a standing pose but chose a seated one, and spent eight months on the painting. It was her first visit since leaving the White House in January 2017. The sitting president usually hosts a predecessor for the unveiling; since Donald Trump held no ceremony for the Obamas, Biden scheduled one.⁠[16][2]

On November 15, 2022, she published The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, which reached No. 1 on The New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists, was named one of TIMETIMETIME is an American newsmagazine and media brand founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, which published its first issue on March 3, 1923; it is headquartered in New York and known for its Person of the Year selection and the TIME100 list. Since 2018 it has been personally owned by Marc and Lynne Benioff; its current Chief Executive Officer is Jessica Sibley, and its Editor-in-Chief is Sam Jacobs.Open the full entry’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022, was translated into 40 languages, and sold more than 2.5 million units in all formats worldwide, including more than 1.9 million of the U.S. edition. In 2023 she launched a podcast of the same name, The Light We Carry.⁠[21][22]

On May 31, 2024, she and other family members announced in a statement that her mother, Marian Robinson, had died at the age of 86, saying “there was and will be only one Marian Robinson.” In Becoming she had written that without her mother she “would not be who I am today.”⁠[4]

On August 20, 2024, the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, she spoke in support of Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisKamala Harris (born 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who served as Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, as a U.S. senator from 2017 to 2021, and as the 49th Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025.Open the full entry and Tim Walz; she has spoken at every Democratic convention since 2008. Comparing Harris’s candidacy to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, she said: “America, hope is making a comeback.”⁠[23]

In the speech she paid tribute to her mother, who had died months earlier, saying her mother “set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my voice,” and adding, “I wasn’t even sure I’d be steady enough to stand before you tonight.” Referring to Donald Trump’s debate claim that immigrants were taking “Black jobs,” she said the job he was seeking “might just be one of those ‘Black jobs,’” and she urged listeners to “do something”; she also mentioned that she had used IVF to conceive her daughters and warned that under a second Trump presidency, gutting health care and taking away women’s freedom to control their bodies would not improve the health outcomes of wives, mothers and daughters.⁠[23]

In 2025 she did not attend the funeral of former President Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJimmy Carter (1924–2024) was an American politician and Democrat who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. His administration brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, signed the Panama Canal treaties and established relations with the People’s Republic of China, but he lost his reelection bid amid the energy crisis, inflation and the Iran hostage crisis; after leaving office he founded The Carter Center to work on mediation, election observation and disease control, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.Open the full entry or the inauguration of Donald Trump; Barack Obama attended both alone. In April, on Sophia Bush’s podcast “Work in Progress,” she addressed rumors of a divorce, saying 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.” She said “Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions,” that as a woman she had often operated out of “guilt,” and that she was now saying yes more often to things like travel and lunches with friends.⁠[27]

On March 12, 2025, she and her brother, Craig Robinson, launched the weekly podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” produced by Higher Ground, with a first two episodes consisting of an introduction and a conversation with Issa Rae, on all major audio platforms and YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry; the show covers life, relationships and personal growth. It was her third podcast, and the announced guests included Brian CheskyBrian CheskyBrian Chesky is an American entrepreneur who is the co-founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of the travel and lodging platform Airbnb. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, in 2007 he and Joe Gebbia rented out airbeds in their San Francisco apartment to their first guests, and in 2008 he co-founded Airbnb with Nathan Blecharczyk, leading the company through Y Combinator, the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its December 2020 initial public offering.Open the full entry, Jay Shetty, Keke Palmer and Tracee Ellis Ross. In a statement she said: “There is no single way to deal with the challenges we may be facing.” The two answer listener questions each week, with new episodes on Wednesdays.⁠[22][28]

In the first episode she said her husband had had to adjust to what “on time” meant, and that he had “improved over 30 years of marriage.”⁠[27]

On June 5, 2025, Penguin Random House announced that her new book, The Look, would be published by the Crown Publishing Group; it was published on November 4, 2025. Illustrated with more than 200 photographs, some never published before, it traces her personal style from her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her years as First Lady to the present, and how she has used fashion and beauty to draw attention to her message; her collaborators included stylist Meredith Koop, makeup artist Carl Ray and hairstylists Yene Damtew and Njeri Radway, and Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University, formally Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private research university in New York City and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 by royal charter from King George II as King's College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the United States. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and adopted the university name and moved to Manhattan's Morningside Heights in 1896. It has 17 schools and four affiliated colleges, with 35,978 students enrolled in fall 2025. Legal scholar Jennifer L. Mnookin became president on July 1, 2026.Open the full entry professor Farah Jasmine Griffin wrote the foreword. She wrote that it was “time for me to reclaim my story.” Penguin Random House Audio released an audiobook read by her at the same time.⁠[21]

Mitchell Beazley, of Octopus Publishing Group (Hachette UK), holds the UK and Commonwealth rights, with simultaneous publication in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and a German edition is published by Prestel Verlag; the podcast IMO: The Look, made for the book, features Jane Fonda, Nina Garcia, Bethann Hardison, Elaine Welteroth and Jenna Lyons, and the book’s hairstylists also included Johnny Wright.⁠[29]

On June 18, 2026, the Obama Presidential Center held its opening ceremony in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, where she and Barack Obama both spoke; she said: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” The center opened to the public on June 19.⁠[30]

She and Barack Obama have two daughters, Malia and Natasha (“Sasha”).⁠[3][2]

In November 2018 she said publicly that she had had a miscarriage about twenty years earlier and had felt “lost and alone” afterward, and that she felt she had “failed, because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were, because we don’t talk about them”; she said she realized at 34 or 35 that “the biological clock is real,” and that both daughters were conceived through IVF.⁠[9]

She also said that the couple went to marriage counseling during a stressful period, and that it “was one of those ways where we learned how to talk out our differences.”⁠[9]

Her brother, Craig Robinson, was head coach of men’s basketball at Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private nonprofit research university in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Ivy League. Chartered by Rhode Island's colonial legislature in 1764, it is known for its undergraduate Open Curriculum, which has no common required core. Christina H. Paxson, president since July 2012, announced on August 3, 2026, that the 2026–27 academic year would be her last in office. As of October 1, 2026, the search for Brown's 20th president remained underway.Open the full entry in 2008; the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is a cooperative news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it is the oldest and largest news agency in the United States.Open the full entry obituary of 2024 describes him as a former head men’s basketball coach at Oregon State UniversityOregon State UniversityOregon State University is a public research university in Oregon, with its main campus in Corvallis. On October 27, 1868, its predecessor, Corvallis College, became the state’s land-grant institution, and the university is now one of the few in the United States holding land, sea, space and sun grant designations. NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, both graduated from its electrical engineering program and have given money to support a research center there.Open the full entry. He wrote the memoir A Game of Character.⁠[11][4]

The caption of her photograph on the Obama Foundation website gives her height as 5 feet 11 inches (about 1.80 m).⁠[10]

On October 7, 2009, The New York Times published research carried out with the genealogist Megan Smolenyak on her maternal ancestry. Her maternal great-great-great-grandmother, Melvinia, was enslaved: in 1850, at the age of six, she was left in a slaveholder’s will as property passed to his relatives, valued at $475; she worked in the house and in fields of wheat, cotton and corn on a 200-acre farm in South CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolina (officially the State of South Carolina) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean bordering Georgia and North Carolina; its capital is Columbia and its most populous city is Charleston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788, the eighth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,118,425.Open the full entry, and was later moved to a farm in Georgia.⁠[31]

As a teenager Melvinia had a son, Dolphus Shields, by a white man; the 1870 census lists him as a mulatto. Dolphus Shields grew up free, moved to Birmingham, AlabamaAlabamaAlabama is a U.S. state in the Southeast on the Gulf of Mexico, with its capital at Montgomery. It was admitted to the Union on December 14, 1819, as the 22nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 5,024,279 residents.Open the full entry, and worked as a carpenter; he owned a home by 1900 and had his own business by 1911. His son Robert Lee Shields married a seamstress named Annie, and their son Purnell moved to Chicago and worked as a painter; he was her maternal grandfather.⁠[31]

X: Public account: https://x.com/michelleobama (opens in a new window).⁠[29]

Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/michelleobama/ (opens in a new window).⁠[29][21]

Facebook: Public account: https://www.facebook.com/michelleobama (opens in a new window).⁠[29]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@michelleobama (opens in a new window).⁠[29][28]

SpotifySpotifySpotify is an audio streaming subscription service offering on-demand music, podcasts, and audiobooks through a free ad-supported service and a paid Premium subscription. Its parent company, Spotify Technology S.A., is incorporated in Luxembourg, has its principal operations in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker SPOT). It helped move the recorded-music business from buying and owning music to on-demand streaming and is one of the largest audio streaming subscription services by users.Open the full entry: Public show: https://open.spotify.com/show/71mvGXupfKcmO6jlmOJQTP (opens in a new window). The show is IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.⁠[32]

Apple Podcasts: Public show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/imo-with-michelle-obama-and-craig-robinson/id1532956108 (opens in a new window). The show is IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.⁠[33]

Michelle Obama Books: Official website: https://www.michelleobamabooks.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[29]

The Office of Barack and Michelle Obama: Official website: https://www.barackobama.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[34]

The Obama Foundation: Official website: https://www.obama.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

When We All Vote: Official website: https://whenweallvote.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]

Sidley Austin: Official website: https://www.sidley.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[35]

Public Allies: Official website: https://publicallies.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[36]

University of Chicago: Official website: https://www.uchicago.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[37]

The University of Chicago Medical Center: Official website: https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[38]