While Barack Obama got most of the limelight by becoming the first Black president in American history, it didn’t take long for his wife to become a superstar in her own right. Michelle Obama is a generally beloved figure, and many have questioned whether she’s the same kind, gentle person behind closed doors that she is on camera.
Aside from her family, there’s only one group of people that knows the answer to that question: her Secret Service detail. After the Obamas left the White House, multiple agents have come forward to volunteer details about Michelle’s biggest secrets.
Just what are those secrets? Will they change your perception of Michelle, or will things stay the same? And the most burning question of them all: is she really a good person? Keep reading to get all the answers you’re looking for!
Why Secret Service agents came forward about Michelle Obama
On paper, it sounds pretty dramatic that Secret Service agents have come forward to dish about Michelle Obama. This might make you think that they were keeping a lid on a major scandal (or two, or three) and just couldn’t keep her secrets contained anymore. However, the real reason the agents came forward to dish on Michelle is simple: they wanted to make money!
In this case, two Secret Service agents decided to do what both Barack and Michelle Obama did: write books based on their extraordinary lives in hopes of securing a tidy profit. One of those agents is Cory Allen, who wrote the book Breaking Free: A Saga of Self-Discovery by a Gay Secret Service Agent. The other agent is Evy Poumpouras, who wrote the book Becoming Bulletproof.
Neither of these books focuses very much on Michelle Obama. However, each book offers a special glimpse into Michelle’s mind and motivations, helping us learn more about the FLOTUS than she would ever willingly reveal.
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Michelle Obama knew her staff by first name
If you’ve been worried these Secret Service agents were going to trash-talk Michelle Obama, you’ve got nothing to fret about. As it turns out, each of them had nothing but nice things to say about the FLOTUS. For example, Cory Allen told Katie Couric Media that Michelle knew her staff by first name, which is an impressive feat for someone married to the most powerful man in the world.
“I was assigned to Michelle, and she knew me by first name,” Allen said. Continuing, he noted that, “The Obamas were very cordial and very authentic. They would ask, ‘How are you? How are things?’ Honestly, Allen’s account of the Obamas restores much of our faith in this iconic duo…like, how cool is it to discover that even their former employees have nothing but good things to say about them?
She is unflappable in the face of racism
As the first Black FLOTUS, Michelle Obama always had to deal with racist critics who attacked her from all sides. But it turns out that she fully embraced the motto that she got America to memorize: “when they go low, we go high.” For example, Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras wrote in her book that Michelle was utterly unfazed in the face of racist opposition.
Poumpouras wrote (according to Business Insider) that “As the first Black First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Obama had to withstand certain kinds of disparagement that none of her predecessors ever faced.” Continuing, she said, “I was on her protective detail when we were driving to a school to deliver a speech; we passed someone on a bridge holding up a shockingly racist sign directed at her. I remember feeling outraged, but if the First Lady saw the sign, she gave no indication of it.”
Honestly, we’d bet good money that Michelle noticed and just didn’t care. And that’s the level of unflappable cool we’ve come to expect from the hippest FLOTUS to ever live in the White House!
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Michelle Obama is a real people person
Do you need more proof that Michelle Obama is a genuinely good person? Long after Cory Allen stopped serving as Michelle’s Secret Service agent, the two of them had a reunion. And Michelle offered far more than polite platitudes. On Medium, Allen wrote that, “She saw me and lit up, asking how I was, what I was doing now, meeting my date, etc. I was assigned to her for two years, so it’s natural she’d recognize me,” he said, but she radiated warmth and caring, because that’s who she is.” What a heartwarming story, right?
Allen also had another heartwarming story about seeing Michelle Obama on her book tour. In that same interview with Katie Couric Media, he was impressed with how Michelle “was able to connect with people as she was selling out stadiums across the globe.” Allen wasn’t immune to her charms, noting that, “The power of her story, the way she tells it, and the way she can just be herself certainly inspired me.”
Michelle Obama is proof that not everyone has skeletons in their closet. And from these secrets spilled by her former Secret Service agents, her only major secret is that she is somehow even nicer in person than we ever could have hoped!