You’d think that being the daughter of former president Barack Obama, you’d want to keep the family name, right?
Well, Barack’s oldest daughter, Malia, recently ditcher her last name. And now her dad is breaking his silence on how he feels about it.
Earlier this year, the eldest Obama child, Malia Obama, made her directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival in honor of the premiere of her new short, “The Heart.”
But what many missed was that she did not go as “Director Malia Obama.” Instead, she screened her new project under the name Malia Ann — her middle name — which is now her professional name.
Asked how he felt about her dropping the Obama last night, Barack said:
“Her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals and she didn’t use ‘Obama’ as a director on the credits,” he said during Tuesday’s episode of the “Pivot” podcast.
“I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are.’”
Obama said that Malia wanted audiences to watch her film, “The Heart,” without having the Obama family connection in mind, which he respected.
“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,’” said Barack, 63.
The proud father of two — who also shares daughter Sasha, 23, with wife Michelle Obama — further explained that his girls aren’t interested in using their status to get ahead.
“I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that,” he said.
Check out Barack Obama’s entire interview here: