() Former first lady Michelle Obama reportedly said she and Barack Obama respect their daughter’s choice of dropping the “Obama” name for professional projects.

Malia Obama recently used her middle name, Ann, for credits in a short film she wrote and directed. The short film aired in 2024 at the Sundance Film Festival.

Michelle Obama told Kate and Oliver Hudson on their podcast “Sibling Revelry” that their daughters “are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away … [where] you’re trying to distinguish yourself.”

She also said that it’s important for her daughter 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, just handed things.”

Even though Michelle believes that people would still know it was Malia’s name in the credits, she said she and Barack “respected the fact that she’s trying to make her way.” She added that Malia and Sasha Obama are “very sensitive to that. They want to be their own people.”

Back in October, Barack also said something similar on Ryan Clark’s “The Pivot Podcast.” He said Malia told him, “You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.”

Michelle Obama pushes back on divorce rumors

In April, Michelle appeared on Sophia Bush’s podcast, “Work in Progress,” and discussed the divorce rumors. Rumors claimed that since Michelle had missed some high-profile events, like President Donald Trump’s inauguration, she and Barack were in the process of a divorce.

“You know, that this couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right? But that’s what society does to us. We start actually, finally, like going, what am I? What am I doing? You know, who am I doing this for? And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible,” she said.

She also appeared on “The Diary of a CEO,” saying, “The beauty of my husband and our partnership is that neither one of us was ever really, ever gonna quit at it, because that’s not who we are. And I know that about him. He knows that about me.”

She also said that if the couple were having issues, everyone would know.

Barack Obama, Michelle Obama in Hollywood

In January, Michelle and Barack worked on their production company, Higher Ground. The couple even received a $65 million production deal from Netflix. However, some projects, like Netflix’s “Later Daters,” weren’t reviewed as a great movie, according to our sources.

“People think it’s easy to break into Hollywood just because they have a fan base,” one source told Froelich. “It’s not. They are at Netflix for the cache it gives Netflix, but they aren’t making the company money.

Michelle does own her healthy soda company, Plezi, allegedly shocking fans in September when she showed up at a Northern California Costco to promote it.

“It was just odd,” one insider said at the time. “The former first lady of America selling soda.”