Michelle Obama Fought The ‘First Sparky Kind of Feeling’ When She Met ‘Attractive’ Barack Obama — Details

On the August 6, 2025, episode of “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” Michelle Obama revealed how she first met Barack Obama in the summer of 1989. She described being skeptical of the buzz around him, puzzled by his background, and unmoved by his photo until his voice on the phone caught her off guard.

In the latest installment of their podcast, Michelle and her brother discussed modern dating, including how sparks can fade and why slow burn lasts longer. A few minutes into the hour-long video, Craig asked her what happened when she first met the person who would become her husband and the 44th President of the United States.

Michelle began by explaining that she was a first-year associate at a Chicago law firm. Although Barack was older than her, he had taken some time off and had just started law school at Harvard at that point.

Law school students typically intern at important law firms during the summer, and Michelle was assigned to the Harvard recruiting team.

“I knew of him. This Barack Obama, and everybody was abuzz about him,” the former first lady said. “All the partners on the Harvard recruiting team were talking about this hotshot first-year Harvard Law student who was brilliant.”

However, Michelle was unimpressed by his profile, his name, and the fact that he grew up in Hawaii. She even thought he would be “weird” because he was “a nerd.” Still, he became her advisee, so she needed to schedule a phone call. That’s when the magic began.

“The first kind of sparky feeling I felt actually was when I talked to him on the phone,” Michelle confessed. “He had his Barack Obama voice. He’s like, ‘Hello.’ The voice was sexier than the image that I had about him. So I was sort of like, ‘Ooh, I didn’t expect this.’ And he was older, so he was self-assured.”

The former first lady admitted that their phone conversation was great, but she still didn’t feel anything at that point since all she had seen was a profile picture, which she said wasn’t “great.”

Also, Barack was late on his first day at the law firm, and by then, any spark Michelle had felt had faded. However, that began to change when she walked into the reception hall, where he was waiting.

“He stands up. He is tall, right? And he’s cute,” she said. “He was much cuter than his picture. The picture didn’t do him justice. I was pleasantly surprised that he was attractive. He stood up, and he was kind of cool in a way that I didn’t expect.”

Moreover, the future president wasn’t flustered by his lateness. He simply apologized because it had been raining that day, which delayed the buses. This only made him better in her eyes.

After getting past the initial introduction, Michelle helped him get settled on his first day and took him to lunch. Their conversation ran long, and the atmosphere was easy and engaging, with what she described as a “hint of a spark.” She realized then just how confident, mature, and funny he was.

The issue was that the future first lady had written him off already because of her position. “I told myself it would be completely inappropriate for me to date this dude that I’m advising,” she continued. “It would be tacky and it would be expected. So I kind of talked myself out of it.”

Back then, she had also told her mother that dating wasn’t part of her plans, explaining that she had always had a boyfriend and wanted time to be independent.

Still, Michelle found herself talking about him to her friends and offering compliments, eventually going so far as to introduce him to them. She and Barack became friends that summer, bonding over their shared interests and similar opinions.