Former US president, Barack Obama has opened up about some of the “somewhat inappropriate” advances he received from women while he was commander in chief.
In an interview on The Pivot Podcast, Obama, 63, told podcast’s co-hosts, former NFL players Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark and Fred Taylor,
that he “was not tripping” from his admirers despite his position at the time.
“When I got drafted in the NFL, I got a little cuter,” Crowder, a former Miami Dolphins linebacker, said while opening up the discussion by sharing his own experience and also what kept him on a “straight and narrow path” throughout it.
“Do women be hollering at you and stuff, like on the fact that, because you’re a good-looking dude, but now you’re ‘President Good Looking Dude,’” he asked to laughter.
“First of all, I don’t know if Michelle’s going to be watching this,” Obama joked about his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama. He then acknowledged his experiences, which he figured hit him differently because of his age at the time.
“The truth is, you guys as NFL players and athletes generally…y’all get famous young, at a time when the attention that you’re talking about maybe flattering, fun, what have you,” he said. “By the time people really knew who I was, I was 43 years old. I was married, had two kids, had gone grocery shopping, had washed my car. I was a regular guy in that sense.”
“That kind of attention, by the time I got it, I was not tripping on it. There are times where women have acted in somewhat inappropriate ways. There are pictures on the internet of women grabbing my butt, and I was president at the time,” he said.
The Secret Service likely didn’t intervene because they were “like old ladies and stuff, so they’re not going to wrestle them down on the ground,” he added.
“My wife is such an extraordinary woman, such an amazing partner, that you just try to stay focused, stay on the straight and narrow. And also, look, kids change your life. The idea of disappointing your kids is something that, I ain’t going there.”
Barack married Michelle in 1992, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, were 10 and 7 when they moved into the White House following his 2008 victory. He was 47 at the time, making him one of the nation’s youngest presidents and the first Black president.