Barack Obama Shares What Drives Sasha and Malia Obama "Nuts" as Adults

Malia Obama and Sasha Obama are still figuring out how to live in the spotlight. 

While the daughters of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have spent the majority of their lives in the public eye, there is a new aspect they've started dealing with as they've gotten older.

"There's been some paparazzi stuff going on, and it drives them nuts," the former president explained on the Oct. 29 episode of The Pivot Podcast, "because their attitude is, ‘We're not looking for all that.'"

Still, he admires how Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, have managed to remain "grounded" despite a less than normal childhood. And for that, he not only credits wife Michelle, but also the attitude of the White House press pool who kept the majority of their focus on him and not his daughters during his presidency.

"Growing up, the press was pretty good," the 63-year-old said. "I basically made a deal with the press pool—the White House press core—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 that sense of normalcy was important for the 44th President and the former First Lady, as one of their biggest concerns the couple had about him running for office was that their kids might "end up weird." Luckily, that didn't happen.

"They've turned out amazing," he gushed. "I can't brag about them enough."

The former politician also touched on Malia's decision to drop the last name Obama, opting instead to use her middle name and go by Malia Ann as she embarks on a career in Hollywood with her directorial debut, The Heart.

"I was all like, 'You do know they'll know who you are,'" he said. "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 A Promised Land author added, "The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all. I mean they're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."

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