View gallery
Malia Obama has spent much of her life in the public eye. The daughter of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama was just 10 years old when her father was elected in 2008, and Americans watched her grow up during the family’s eight years in the White House alongside her younger sister, Sasha.
Since leaving Washington, Malia has largely forged her own path. A graduate of Harvard University, she has built a career in entertainment, working as a writer on Donald Glover‘s series Swarm before making her directorial debut with the short film The Heart, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival under the professional name “Malia Ann.” In recent years, she has also drawn attention for her efforts to establish an identity separate from her famous family name.
While Malia generally keeps her personal life private, she has been linked to a handful of high-profile romances over the years, including former Harvard classmate Rory Farquharson and music producer Dawit Eklund. Michelle has previously shared that both of her daughters have approached dating on their own terms and encouraged them to remain open to new experiences.
In her 2022 book The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times, Michelle wrote that she hoped that neither of her daughters would rush into marriage. “Malia and Sasha have been doing precisely what Barack and I were each doing at their age, which is dating around,” she wrote. “The truth is that I’m hoping our daughters won’t rush out of the flea market too quickly. I hope they will instead linger a while, allowing their relationships to remain fluid and youthful.”
Now that Malia is all grown up, get to know more about her past loves.
Rory Farquharson
While Malia mostly kept her relationships private, it was revealed that she was romantically linked with classmate Rory Farquharson in 2017. She was seen kissing the British law student after one of the Ivy League school’s football games. After the fact, it was revealed that the pair were dating when they were seen walking around New York City together.
It’s not entirely clear when the pair split up, but it wasn’t until 2022 that romance rumors began with someone new!
Dawit Eklund
After her relationship with Rory, Malia was rumored to be seeing Ethiopian producer Dawit Eklund in 2022. The electronic music producer the record label 1432 R out of Washington D.C., according to Page Six. The pair were spotted out and about in Los Angeles in New York City (where it was speculated whether or not he met Barack and Michelle, per DailyMail), but their relationship was never confirmed.
Hanging Out With Aminé
Some fans began to speculate that the former first daughter had begun dating rapper Aminé in late 2023, when the two were seen out grabbing sushi together in Los Angeles, per The International News. Despite being spotted together, it’s not clear if it was a date or not.
The photos weren’t the only time that Malia has met the “Caroline” rapper. He recalled meeting her after a performance at a Chicago Music Festival in a 2017 interview with i-D. “I came offstage and a Lollapalooza security guard came up and said, ‘Malia Obama would like to speak to you.’ She was a super-normal, cool, regular American teen,” he said.
