Day: August 11, 2025

• Michelle Obama says her top dating advice to her daughters is simple: date a lot.
• She said that dating widely meant she had experiences to “compare” Barack Obama to when he came along.
• “And if you run into a bad date or have a bad experience, move on quickly. Don’t stay around,” she said.

Michelle Obama isn’t afraid of a little trial-and-error, even when it comes to relationships.

During the Wednesday episode of her “IMO” podcast, which she cohosts with her brother, Craig Robinson, Obama spoke about dating and the guidance she shares with her two daughters regarding matters of the heart.

Her main piece of advice? Date a lot.

“I just try to get them to stay open to people, right?” Obama told Robinson. “The thing that I did do was date a lot. And so when Barack showed up, I had experiences to compare him against. Like, I knew a lot of the ‘I didn’t like this, I didn’t like that.’”

Obama said she and her husband, Barack Obama, often shared stories from their own dating past to help their daughters learn what to look for and what to avoid.

“My whole thing is, date a lot. And if you run into a bad date or have a bad experience, move on quickly. Don’t stay around. It’s like, if it’s not working, next,” Obama said.

In 2023, Obama said that it took her some time to get used to her and her husband’s different love languages. He is more verbally and physically affectionate, while she prefers acts of service and quality time, she said.

“One of the things that’s different in how we show love is that because his family lived far away, and traveled a lot, he had to learn to love at a distance,” Obama said. In contrast, her family was “always together.”

Dating coaches and relationship therapists shared their top dating tips with Business Insider in 2022. These included strategies like starting a date with a compliment, practicing flirting with eyes, and ending a first date with a subtle “accidental” touch.

A representative for Obama did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.