Barack Obama Cried When He Dropped Off Malia at College

By Erica Gonzales

Sep 27, 2017

Not even Barack Obama is immune to that emotional goodbye parents experience when sending their kids off to college. The former president had a tough time sending off his 19-year-old daughter, Malia, when he and Michelle helped her move into Harvard University in August.

"For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast. I dropped off Malia at college, and I was saying to Joe and Jill [Biden] that it was a little bit like open-heart surgery," Obama said during a reception for the Beau Biden Foundation last night, according to a video by WDEL radio. The former Commander-in-Chief stopped by the event in Delaware to support his former VP, Joe Biden.

"I was proud that I did not cry in front of her," the father of two added, invoking his classic dad humor. "But on the way back, the Secret Service was off, looking straight ahead, pretending they weren’t hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose. It was rough."

While Malia pursues her college career in Cambridge, her sister Sasha, 16, continues high school in Washington, D.C. The younger Obama sibling and her parents are reportedly slated to live in the capital's Kalorama neighborhood at least until she graduates. Hopefully the former POTUS will have a box of tissues ready then.