In a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, former President Barack Obama opened up about what quarantine was like during the first few months of the pandemic, including the family’s additional guest.
He revealed that Rory Farquharson, boyfriend of his oldest daughter, Malia, was actually with the family at the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Obama responded to the show’s host and CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers question about his favorite moments as a dad during quarantine:
“Maybe teaching Malia and Sasha, and Malia’s boyfriend who was with us for a while, spades and then having some spades games. And teaching them how to properly trash talk and slam the cards down,” he said.
Farquharson, who is British, ended up with the family after a “visa thing.”
“There was this whole visa thing, he had a job set up, and so we took him in,” he shared.
The former Commander-in-Chief said that the months of having his girls back at home were “a blessing.”
“It’s a blessing because all the teenage stuff is kind of gone now,” he shared, “They’re just back and they love you again and they wanna spend time with you again.”
“I think a lot of families we went through that first month where we were playing games every night, doing arts and crafts projects and then, slowly, they started to get a little bored with us.”
Obama enjoyed being able to spend time with his family during the early months of the pandemic overall, but said Farquharson ran up his grocery bill.
“The only thing you discover, this is not a surprise to you Bill because you’ve got a son, young men eat. It’s weird to watch them consume food. And my grocery bill went up about 30 percent,” he said laughingly.
Obama said that he and Farquharson got to know each other better after spending time together. “I didn’t want to like him, but he’s a good kid,” he said.
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