Obama speaks up on daughter's decision to drop her last name, says 'they know who you are'

United States former president Barack Obama for the first time opened up about his daughter Malia's decision to drop her last name professionally. 

Malia has made her directorial debut with the short film The Heart which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January.

Sharing his reaction to Malia's decision, Obama said that he warned her that even if she dropped her surname, it would not hide her identity as she would remain connected with her parents. 

“Her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals and she didn’t use Obama as a director on the credits,” said Obama, while speaking in Tuesday’s episode of the “Pivot” podcast. “I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are," he added.

Malia wanted no family connection in her film 'The Heart': Obama

The former president said that his daughter wanted the audience to watch the film "The Heart" without bringing to mind the connection it had with the Obama family. 

“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 the 63-year-old Obama.

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Obama further said that both his daughters are not interested in using the status of their parents to get ahead in life. “I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that,” he added.

The author of “A Promised Land” said that the daughters don't want their parents to give them a leg up in their careers.

“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," Obama said.

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Earlier, co-host of the “View” Whoopi Goldberg, had also defended Malia's decision to make her directorial debut as "Malia Ann" after she was criticised for her decision.

“Apparently some folks online are criticising her for it, claiming everyone knows she’s an Obama, so it’s pointless to hide it. If she knows she’s an Obama, why do you care? Why do you care what she calls herself? If she wanted to call herself Jeanette MacDonald, she has the right to! If I can be Whoopi Goldberg, she can be whoever the hell she wants to be!,” Goldberg said.

(With inputs from agencies)