Details About Michelle & Malia Obama's Bold Escape From The White House

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There are many things first ladies can't do while they're in the White House, including evading their Secret Service protection. The same restrictions are put on the president's children, which, according to Michelle Obama, made for a very complicated upbringing for her daughters, Malia and Sasha. But the constantly looming armed protection didn't stop Obama from keeping her security detail on their toes. 

In her 2018 memoir, "Becoming," the former first lady recalled the time she and Malia snuck out of the presidential residence for an evening. Per her telling, Obama came back from a funeral service for the victims of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, when she peered out her window and saw the White House lit up with a rainbow of color — she noted that it was the day the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the country, so White House staff were celebrating on the lawn. 

Of course, protocol inhibited her from taking a casual stroll out of the front door, but the former first lady felt that it was a special occasion to break the rules. She took Malia as her accomplice, or, "my wing-woman," as she put it. "We were going on an adventure — outside, where people were gathered — and we weren't going to ask anyone's permission," she wrote in her memoir. The attorney detailed how she and her eldest daughter swiftly walked past security without notifying anyone. "Malia gave me a devilish smirk," wrote Obama. "She wasn't used to my flouting the rules." A security usher on night duty stopped to warn them about opening the doors out to where the press normally dwelled. Then someone suggested they make their way to a service entrance, where they found a successful exit. 

It wasn't often that Michelle Obama could obtain a small sense of normalcy with her daughter, since most of Malia's childhood was spent under White House rules. But when they could break free for a few fleeting moments, it made for the best memories of mother-daughter bonding. Obama opened up about one sweet instance on Amy Poehler's podcast, "Good Hang." "We were in Martha's Vineyard, I'm driving, she turns on the radio and starts playing some of our favorite songs, and we're singing at the top of our lungs," the former first lady recalled. "I'd never had that experience with her from [Malia's teenage years] on."

In 2025, as Malia began making a name for herself in the film industry, the first daughter dropped the "Obama" from her name, deciding to go by Malia Ann (her middle name) professionally. While it might sound like a red flag in Malia's relationship with her mother and father, Obama asserts that she gave her daughter the green light. 

On Kate and Oliver Hudson's podcast, "Sibling Revelry," she said, "It is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world. And they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just naturally handed things." While she wholeheartedly supports and respects Malia's decision to drop her last name, Obama quipped, "They're still gonna know it's you, Malia."